low-cost missiles – The Pentagon will test low-cost cruise and hypersonic missiles with disruptive firms, aiming to buy more than 10,000 over three years from 2027.
A new push inside the U.S.. defense establishment is betting that the next war will be won as much by supply chains as by sophisticated hardware.. The Pentagon is moving to test low-cost missiles from a small group of so-called “disruptive” defense technology companies. with the goal of scaling up the military’s stockpile of affordable cruise and hypersonic weapons.
The Department of Defense announced agreements Wednesday with four companies — Anduril. CoAspire. Leidos. and Zone 5 Technologies — to launch the “Low-Cost Containerized Missiles” (LCCM) program.. The program is designed around producing large numbers of cheap cruise missiles. shifting attention away from the long-established approach dominated by major “prime” contractors such as Lockheed Martin or RTX.
A separate startup, Castelion, will support the development and production of low-cost hypersonic weapons.. Castelion is tied to the Blackbeard hypersonic missile. and the plan is intended to broaden the “low-cost” strategy beyond cruise munitions into the faster. higher-end segment that typically carries steeper production costs and longer timelines.
This effort is rooted in a broader concern voiced by Pentagon officials: whether the U.S.. can make enough munitions quickly enough during a major conflict.. Officials point to recurring evidence from recent wars showing how rapidly high-end precision strike stocks can be consumed. and how long it may take to replenish them once the tempo of fighting accelerates.
The Pentagon’s internal reasoning. as laid out in its announcement. is that “cheap mass” can help the military sustain operations when demand for precision strike capabilities rises faster than traditional production lines can respond.. The war in Ukraine has repeatedly highlighted the value of having large quantities of lower-cost munitions available. particularly when other stockpiles run out.
For the LCCM program specifically. the Pentagon said it hopes to procure more than 10. 000 low-cost cruise missiles over three years beginning in 2027.. That procurement is planned through firm-fixed-price production contracts. which the department described as a pathway toward rapid and repeatable production of high-volume. lethal strike capabilities.
Before wider purchasing begins. the Pentagon plans to start buying test missiles from all four LCCM companies in June 2026. ahead of military assessments.. That sequencing matters: it shows the department is using early buys as a proof step. rather than committing immediately to large orders without data on performance and manufacturability.
Castelion’s role is tied to hypersonic production at scale.. The Pentagon said Castelion is set to receive a multi-year procurement contract for at least 500 hypersonic weapons annually once those munitions pass testing. aligning hypersonic expansion with the same broader push for predictable. high-volume output.
The model also includes a different approach to risk and funding.. Several participating firms. whose names were not specified in the announcement beyond those four listed for LCCM. are expected to scale production without direct military investment.. Pentagon officials described the approach as designed to reward speed. innovation. and private capital. effectively trying to accelerate development and manufacturing by leaning on industry financing and execution.
Officials framed the initiative as part of the Trump administration’s effort to build what it calls an “Arsenal of Freedom. ” using private-sector investment as a lever rather than relying solely on government-funded development.. In practical terms. this is about restructuring how demand signals flow to suppliers. encouraging new entrants to invest with confidence that the Pentagon’s purchasing plans are durable.
The quest for low-cost munitions doesn’t stop with LCCM.. The Pentagon’s research arm. the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. is also pursuing ways to develop low-cost missiles that can be built in days rather than months.. By targeting speed from the design and prototyping stage through production. officials are aiming to compress the timeline between identification of a need and delivery of usable weapons.
Michael Duffey. Under Secretary of War for Acquisition and Sustainment. said the effort reflects a move beyond the traditional prime contractors to expand the industrial base.. In Wednesday’s release. he tied that shift to accelerating testing timelines and sending a clear. long-term demand signal to innovative new entrants.
For markets and defense industrial planning. the program’s emphasis on fixed-price production and large-volume orders signals a deliberate attempt to create a scalable manufacturing model. not just a one-off experiment.. If the Pentagon’s test purchases in 2026 translate into repeatable production at the pace envisioned for 2027 onward. the awards could reshape how quickly the U.S.. stockpiles low-cost cruise and hypersonic missiles in future contingencies.
At the same time. the department’s approach highlights a key tension in defense procurement: advanced munitions often come with higher technical complexity. while “cheap mass” depends on simplifying processes enough to manufacture in volume.. By combining LCCM’s containerized. low-cost framing with a hypersonic plan for Blackbeard once testing is cleared. the Pentagon is essentially trying to bridge that gap—building a larger reserve of weapons that can be produced and replenished under sustained demand.
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