US scrambling to restock missiles for possible Taiwan war

The US Navy’s new budget-friendly maritime strike weapon program aims to replenish dangerously depleted stockpiles of long-range strike munitions in a potential Taiwan conflict by leveraging the production capabilities of crucial allies including Japan and Australia.

This month, Breaking Defense reported that the US Navy has initiated a search for industry input on a novel medium-range maritime strike weapon, named the “Coalition Affordable Maritime Strike Weapon System” (CAMS), with plans to commence production by fiscal year 2027.

Breaking Defense says the July 16 solicitation highlights a need for an affordable, widely exportable weapon system deployed across multiple domains—air, surface and sub-surface. This initiative addresses the diminishing returns many coalition partners face in modernizing and sustaining their mid-range maritime strike capabilities.

The Breaking Defense report says CAMS is designed to strike targets at a minimum distance of 140 nautical miles, with adaptability for launch from ships’ vertical launch systems (VLS) and aircraft at altitudes up to 40,000 feet.

It notes that the US Navy aims to produce a system that costs approximately US$1.5 million per unit, with an industry production capacity of at least 250 rounds annually.

Breaking Defense says that while the specific coalition countries interested in CAMS remain undisclosed, the program seeks to leverage international interest and expand munitions production capacity for collective defense use.

The Ukraine war has shown that large-scale industrial wars of attrition are here to stay, with the industrial capacity to manufacture and replenish precision-guided munitions (PGM) a key strategic-level decisive factor.

In a January 2023 report for