2026年9月13日 / 美国东部时间上午10:11 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻网
在阿肯色州卡姆登的洛克希德·马丁公司生产车间里，该公司导弹部门主管蒂姆·卡希尔向《周日早间》栏目展示了最新型爱国者防空导弹。这是一款最先进的武器，旨在击落最致命的威胁：来袭的弹道导弹。它通过撞击摧毁来袭导弹——也就是典型的“子弹打子弹”场景。
“它几乎能将击中的任何目标蒸发殆尽，”卡希尔说道。
在阿肯色州卡姆登的洛克希德·马丁公司生产车间组装爱国者导弹。哥伦比亚广播公司新闻网 摄
每一枚这样的“子弹”造价约400万美元，而洛克希德·马丁目前每年产量为750枚——这远远不足以补充在对伊朗战争中消耗的约1500枚爱国者导弹。
战略与国际研究中心的马克·坎西安估算了美国在对伊朗战争中使用的爱国者导弹以及其他六种关键武器的消耗量，其中包括战斧巡航导弹、终端高空区域防御导弹（THAAD）以及远程精确打击导弹（PrSM）。他表示，美国对伊朗发动打击所使用的弹药总成本约为250亿美元。
截至2026年4月，美国对伊朗关键弹药的预估支出。战略与国际研究中心 制
“如果伊朗发射弹道导弹，我们就必须动用高端防空系统进行防御，”坎西安说道。
这场已经持续七个月且不受民众欢迎的对伊战争，让所有人都看清了一个令人不安的事实：高科技武器长期短缺的问题，在2022年俄罗斯全面入侵乌克兰后美国加大对乌军援之前，一直被两党政府 largely ignored。
“乌克兰战争给我们敲响了警钟，”坎西安说，“因为我们清楚地意识到，我们没有足够的库存，也没有扩产能力来支撑一场长期冲突。”
今年2月，美国对伊朗发动军事打击。据美国参谋长联席会议主席丹·凯恩透露，截至4月8日，美军已打击了超过13000个目标。
“这极大地耗尽了库存，”坎西安说道。
当被问及美国是否拥有足够的武器来打赢这场战争时，坎西安回答：“就对伊朗的战争而言，答案是肯定的。问题在于对中国的战争。我们或许能为头一个月的战事提供足够的弹药，但到第二个月、第三个月或是第四个月，这将是巨大的挑战。”
美国国防部表示，“有关美国弹药短缺的说法是虚假的”，这类言论只会助长敌人袭击美军的气焰。
但美国国防部长皮特·赫格斯一直敦促军工行业将武器生产提升至他所谓的“战时状态”，洛克希德·马丁的蒂姆·卡希尔将此描述为“可控的混乱”。“就是要快速行动，理清思路，找出我们面临的障碍并加以破除，”他说道。
洛克希德·马丁计划通过增加轮班班次和提高装配线自动化水平，将爱国者导弹的年产量从750枚提升至2000枚。“当我们实现工厂全面自动化以提高产量时，原本需要数小时的工序将缩短至数分钟，”卡希尔说道。
组装一枚爱国者导弹大约需要六周时间，但制造其搭载的4000个零部件则需要约两年时间。洛克希德·马丁依赖一个庞大的供应链——大约500到1000家供应商——这可能会造成瓶颈。“我们的玩笑话是：‘制造一枚导弹需要多少个零件？’答案是，‘所有零件’，”卡希尔说道。“因此，只要供应链上任何一个环节出现一个零件短缺，就会影响整体生产……我们许多系统都依赖单一来源供应商。”
爱国者导弹的火箭发动机由五英里外的国防承包商L3Harris制造，该过程需遵守耗时的安全规定。“如果处理不当，我们生产的产品无疑是危险的，”该公司导弹业务总裁肯·贝丁菲尔德说道。
在阿肯色州卡姆登的L3Harris工厂制造导弹组件。哥伦比亚广播公司新闻网 摄
他表示，每个发动机中的火箭燃料都需要在烤箱中固化，就像陶器在窑中烧制一样。“烤箱里的固化时间可能从几天到几周不等，”贝丁菲尔德说道。
该公司已将爱国者导弹发动机的产量提升了近一倍，并破土动工建设一座新的、自动化程度更高的工厂，但该工厂仍需16个月才能完工。和洛克希德·马丁一样，贝丁菲尔德的生产进度也受制于能否获得足够的零部件。“有时只有一家合格供应商，但我们希望这种情况只是极少数例外，而非常态，”他说道。“喷嘴和锥形体是一些影响生产进度的零部件。”
赫格斯呼吁加快速度、扩大规模、提升产量、提高效率，以最快速度重建美国武库，这一呼吁得到了万亿美元级国防预算的支持，但民调显示大多数美国人并不支持这一做法。这可以说是冷战时期军事工业复合体的重生——只不过这一次，这个体系中加入了像弗吉尼亚州马纳萨斯的CoAspire公司这样的颠覆性企业，该公司由道格·登尼尼执掌。
他的公司正在生产一款可从飞机上发射的巡航导弹，成本仅为大多数巡航导弹的一小部分。“大约几十万美元，”他说道。
CoAspire公司的快速适配型廉价巡航导弹（RAACM）是一款模块化空射武器系统。哥伦比亚广播公司新闻网 摄
高端巡航导弹搭载的弹头更大、射程也比登尼尼的产品更远。“我们正努力大批量生产这些导弹，即便它们并非那么精密，”他说道，“但其中许多都能成功命中目标。”
美国国防部计划从CoAspire和其他初创企业采购10000枚低成本巡航导弹。当被问及他的导弹是否足以应对中国的防空系统时，登尼尼回答：“是的。如果你拥有数千枚这样的导弹，即便非常先进的防空系统也很难全部拦截。”
CoAspire的巡航导弹仅包含200个零部件，其中一些是现成的商用产品，包括用于配重粘在头部的钢珠。“发动机最初来自爱好者市场，”登尼尼说道。
在登尼尼正在洽谈价值4亿美元的廉价导弹生产合同时，洛克希德·马丁刚刚签署了一份价值590亿美元的合同，用于制造高性能爱国者导弹。
当被问及美国需要多长时间才能将库存补充至对伊战争前的水平时，战略与国际研究中心的马克·坎西安回答：“这取决于弹药类型，大约需要1到5年。一旦我们将库存恢复至战前水平，还需要数年时间才能达到战争规划者对对华战争感到放心的水平。”
更多信息：
- 洛克希德·马丁：导弹与火力控制部门
- 马克·F·坎西安，战略与国际研究中心国防与安全部门高级顾问
- L3Harris
- CoAspire
本报道由罗伯特·马斯顿制作。编辑：杰森·施密特。
Missile crisis: The hard truths about America’s military arsenal
September 13, 2026 / 10:11 AM EDT / CBS News
On the floor at Lockheed Martin’s production facility in Camden, Arkansas, Tim Cahill, head of the company’s missile division, showed “Sunday Morning” the latest model of the Patriot air defense missile, a state-of-the-art weapon designed to shoot down the deadliest of threats: an incoming ballistic missile. It destroys an incoming missile by impact – a classic “bullet hitting a bullet” scenario.
“It’s going to vaporize pretty much whatever it hits,” Cahill said.
Assembling Patriot missiles at Lockheed Martin’s production facility in Camden, Arkansas. CBS News
Each of these “bullets” costs about $4 million, and Lockheed Martin is currently turning out 750 of them a year – not nearly enough to replenish the estimated 1,500 fired in the war against Iran.
Mark Cancian, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, has compiled estimates of the Patriot and six other critical weapons (including the Tomahawk; the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missile, or THAAD; and the long-range Precision Strike Missile, or PrSM) used against Iran. He says the cost of munitions already fired off against Iran is in the vicinity of $25 billion.
Estimated expenditure of key munitions by the U.S. against Iran as of April 2026. Center for Strategic and International Studies
“If they fire a ballistic missile, we have to use one of our high-end systems to defend,” Cancian said.
Now in its seventh month, the unpopular war with Iran has exposed for all to see an unsettling fact: A chronic shortage of high-tech weapons, which was largely ignored by both Democratic and Republican administrations, until the U.S. increased military aid to Ukraine after the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022.
“The war in Ukraine was the wake-up call,” Cancian said, “because it became clear that we did not have adequate inventories or the surge capability to supply a protracted conflict.”
Then, this February, the U.S. attacked Iran. By April 8, according to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine, the United States Joint Force had struck more than 13,000 targets.
“It depleted the stockpiles quite considerably,” Cancian said.
Asked if the U.S. has enough weapons to see the war through, Cancian replied, “For a war against Iran, the answer is yes. The problem is a war against China. We might be able to provide enough munitions for a month, but getting on to month two or month three or four, that’s a great challenge.”
The Pentagon says, “Claims of U.S. munition shortages are false,” and only embolden enemies to attack American troops.
But Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has been exhorting industry to increase weapons production to what he calls a “wartime footing,” which Lockheed Martin’s Tim Cahill describes as “controlled chaos.” “It’s just, move fast, figure it out, find what our obstacles are, break them down,” he said.
Lockheed Martin intends to increase Patriot production from 750 a year to 2,000, by laying on more shifts and increasing automation on the assembly line. “Hours are going to become minutes as we fully automate this factory to drive those rates up,” Cahill said.
It takes some six weeks to assemble a Patriot, but about two years to manufacture the 4,000 parts that go into it. Lockheed Martin depends on a vast supply chain – on the order of 500 to 1,000 suppliers – creating potential bottlenecks. “Our joke is, ‘How many parts does it take to build a missile?’ And the answer is, ‘All of them,’” Cahill said. “And so, all it takes is one single part somewhere along the line to keep from building up … we’ve had to rely upon single-source suppliers for many of our systems.”
The rocket motors which power the Patriot are made five miles away by the defense contractor L3Harris under time-consuming safety regulations. “We are working with a product that is certainly dangerous if not handled properly,” said Ken Bedingfield, the company’s president of missiles.
Manufacturing missile components at the L3Harris facility in Camden, Ark. CBS News
He says the rocket fuel in each of these motors has to be cured in an oven much like pottery in a kiln. “That cure time in the oven can take from days to weeks,” said Bedingfield.
The company has nearly doubled production of motors for the Patriot, and broken ground on a new, more automated plant, which is still 16 months away from completion. And as with Lockheed Martin, Bedingfield’s schedule is hostage to his ability to get enough of the parts he needs. “Sometimes there is only one qualified supplier, but we want that to be the absolute exception, not the rule,” he said. “Nozzles and cones are some parts that are schedule-challenged.”
Hegseth’s call for speed, scale, volume, efficiency, maximum urgency in rebuilding America’s arsenal is fueled by record trillion-dollar defense budgets, which polls show a majority of Americans do not support. Think of it as the rebirth of the Cold War military-industrial complex – only this time the complex includes disrupters like CoAspire, in Manassas, Virginia, run by Doug Denneny.
His company is producing a cruise missile meant to be launched from aircraft, at a fraction of what most cruise missiles cost. “A couple hundred thousand dollars,” he said.
CoAspire’s Rapidly Adaptable Affordable Cruise Missile (RAACM) is a modular, air-launched weapon system. CBS News
High-tech cruise missiles carry bigger warheads, and have a longer range than Denneny’s. “We’re trying to build these in high quantities, knowing that they’re not as exquisite,” he said, “but many of these will get through to the target.”
The Pentagon plans to buy 10,000 low-cost cruise missiles from CoAspire and other startups. Asked if his missile is a good enough weapon to go up against Chinese air defenses, Denneny replied, “It is. And if you have thousands of these, it’s very challenging for even a very sophisticated air defense system to take care of.”
CoAspire’s cruise missile has just 200 parts, some of them off-the-shelf commercial products, including BBs glued into the nose for ballast. “The engine comes originally from the hobbyist market,” Denneny said.
While Denneny is working on contracts worth $400 million to make affordable missiles, Lockheed Martin just signed a $59 billion contract to build high-performance Patriots.
Asked how long it might take the U.S. to replenish its stockpiles to pre-Iran war levels, the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Mark Cancian replied, “It’s about one to five years, depending on the munition. Once we’ve rebuilt the inventories to the pre-war level, then we’ll take several years to get to a level that the war planners would be comfortable with for a war against China.”
For more info:
- Lockheed Martin: Missiles and Fire Control
- Mark F. Cancian, senior adviser, Defense and Security Department, Center for Strategic and International Studies
- L3Harris
- CoAspire
Story produced by Robert Marston. Editor: Jason Schmidt.
发表回复