Hegseth is accusing Senator Mark Kelly of "spilling" sensitive information, specifically, the degree of depletion of U.S. weapon magazines.
https://x.com/Chetuyachinago/status/2053664500788642156
Hegseth is accusing Senator Mark Kelly of "spilling" sensitive information, specifically, the degree of depletion of U.S. weapon magazines.
This is a very serious charge because from a security perspective, confirming exactly how "deep" the U.S. has gone into its stockpile is a significant intelligence "win" for adversaries like Iran or China.
Senator Mark Kelly made these comments during an interview on CBS News which aired on Sunday, May 10, 2026.
According to the Senator, the Pentagon classified brief on Iran war impact on US missile stockpiles is very "deep".
According to these reports, the rate of consumption of precision-guided munitions (PGMs) cannot match the production capacity of the U.S. defense industrial base.
The list provided by Kelly includes Tomahawks, ATACMS, SM-3, THAAD, Patriot, all of which represents the "backbone" of U.S. air and missile defense and long-range strike capabilities.
The Tomahawks and ATACMS were used to strike Iranian facilities and assets while the SM-3, THAAD and Patriot Systems were used to intercept Iranian missiles and drones targeting U.S. forces or regional allies.
Unlike conventional ammunition, these systems are highly sophisticated, requiring long lead times to manufacture, rare earth materials, and specialized components.
The fact that it will take "years" to replenish these stocks implies that the U.S. is essentially "burning through" a stockpile that was not designed for a high-intensity, multi-month war against a state actor.
The THAAD and Patriot Systems depends depends on precision components, specifically in guidance systems, actuators, and sensor assemblies that rely heavily on rare earth elements and other critical minerals.
China currently holds a staggering 99% market share of these rare earth minerals.
These elements are not "technically" rare as they're everywhere in the earth's crust and much more abundant than Gold.
Mining the ore is also relatively straightforward.
The difficulty begins when you try to separate those elements from the rock and from each other.
Because these Rare Earth Elements are chemically very similar to each other.
Separating them requires a long, complex series of chemical baths and solvent extraction processes.
This process is extremely dirty. It produces massive amounts of hazardous, often radioactive, waste (thorium and uranium)
China, was willing to tolerate the severe environmental consequences of this industrial process for decades, while Western nations tightened environmental regulations to the point where it became economically unviable to build refineries at home.
Over time, China gained a "knowledge monopoly", they have the engineering experience, the specialized chemical infrastructure, and the massive scale to do this cheaply.
It is not even enough to just refine the minerals into high-purity oxides.
To be useful in a Patriot or THAAD missile, they must be converted into Permanent Magnets (like Neodymium-Iron-Boron magnets).
China currently controls the overwhelming majority of the factories that turn refined rare earth oxides into finished high-performance magnets. Even if the U.S. mined its own ore, it would likely still have to send it to China to be turned into a magnet that could actually be used in a weapon system.
So not only is the Pentagon low on their advanced weapons stockpiles, producing them takes years and if you consider the Ukraine war and the Iran war, both of which the US government is funding, production capacity can never meet up with consumption.
At a point the US would become overstretched and exposed, the worst thing here is that China currently holds the key to these rare earth minerals and will happily place an embargo on the US if things gets a little bit spicy.
The fact that China currently holds a monopoly share of this market is a huge problem for the US and can explain why Hegseth is furious that the current state of America's military magazines is exposed to the public for ridicule.
posted by Satish Sharma at
08:53
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