A top expert from the Center for Strategic and International Studies warned National Public Radio listeners over the weekend that U.S. munitions stockpiles could soon run short after the Trump administration’s strikes on Iran. The interview did not disclose that CSIS receives millions of dollars from major defense contractors, including Lockheed Martin, RTX, and Northrop Grumman, that stand to profit from the push to replenish those weapons.
The appearance came as the Pentagon prepares a potential $50 billion funding request to replenish weapons used in the Trump administration’s unauthorized attacks on Iran. The strikes have killed more than 1,000 people in Iran so far and six U.S. service members.
Speaking on “All Things Considered,” Seth Jones, president of the Defense and Security Department at CSIS, framed the dwindling missile supplies as a challenge to the U.S. defense industrial base. But the segment did not mention the think tank’s financial ties to major weapons manufacturers whose stock prices rose after the war in Iran began and it became clear that U.S. munitions supplies were being rapidly drawn down.
Since October 2023, the U.S. has been firing off missiles at a rapid clip in conflicts in the Middle East, supplying Israel’s war in Gaza and fighting Houthi forces disrupting Red Sea shipping. The new war with Iran has intensified the pressure on U.S. stockpiles, raising calls in Washington to increase weapons production.
Yet for years, the same contractors set to profit from a surge in Pentagon spending have been rewarding their shareholders by spending tens of billions on stock buybacks and dividends. From 2017 through 2024, Lockheed Martin, RTX, Northrop Grumman, and General Dynamics spent a combined $89 billion on stock buybacks and dividends, according to calculations by defense analyst Stephen Semler using company financial disclosures.
“Think tank experts help to shape the public debate,” said Ben Freeman, director of the Democratizing Foreign Policy program at the transpartisan Quincy Institute. “And many of those think tanks' top donors are the arms manufacturers profiting from the war in Iran. That think tank funding shouldn't be an undisclosed afterthought in the story.”
At the bipartisan CSIS, Jones has previously warned that a major war could strain U.S. munitions supplies. In a 2023 report, he argued that major regional conflicts would test the capacity of the American defense industrial base.
