Companies supplying the US military-industrial complex are trying to reshape missile production so weapons can be built faster, at lower cost and in far greater numbers. According to the Financial Times, which cited manufacturers and officials, Washington needs this model to replenish its arsenals quickly under the pressure of modern military conflicts.

Co-Aspire chief Doug Denneny told the newspaper that his company’s new workshop was built without complex equipment, while the assembly process follows what he described as a McDonald’s-style model. He said each missile has been simplified to the point where it can be put together using instructions, with workers needing around a month of training before joining the line. Denneny also argued that the weapon could be assembled even in a school gym.

The FT article presents these production lines as an attempt to tackle one of the central weaknesses of the American defense industry: missiles remain slow and expensive to manufacture. The issue became especially urgent after the war with Iran, which showed that the Pentagon could need years to rebuild its stockpiles.

Former Pentagon official Michael Horowitz, who worked on defense innovation, told the FT that the American arsenal relies entirely on costly, complex and difficult-to-produce weapons systems. In his view, the United States has entered a different era of warfare and now has to adapt.

Co-Aspire is not the only company involved in this shift. According to the newspaper, the startup Castelion has received a contract to produce more than 12,000 hypersonic missiles over five years. Once its new plant in New Mexico is completed, the company expects to manufacture up to 6,000 missiles annually. The projected cost of one missile is around $400,000, and the company is also considering additional production sites in other regions.

To cut costs and speed up assembly, Co-Aspire uses off-the-shelf components originally designed for radio-controlled toy aircraft. Castelion, meanwhile, often relies on automotive parts.

The FT describes the goal of the new production strategy as giving the United States the ability to fight a prolonged war while launching hundreds of precision missiles every day. These weapons are expected to be deployed faster and with greater accuracy than strike drones used in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Experts cited by the newspaper warn, however, that this approach creates a serious challenge for the Pentagon. New weapons built under this model may no longer match the accuracy and reliability of more expensive systems.