Why it Matters

The Senate Armed Services Committee is convening a closed hearing on low-cost munitions on March 24, 2026 — a session that goes to the heart of whether the U.S. military can afford to fight the next war. The Pentagon faces a stark cost asymmetry problem: American forces are burning through exquisite, high-dollar interceptors like Patriot and THAAD missiles to defeat cheap adversary drones and cruise missiles. The math doesn't work, and Congress knows it. This hearing arrives as Chairman Roger Wicker has made affordable weapons systems the centerpiece of his 2026 defense agenda, and as real-world lessons from Ukraine are forcing a reckoning with how the U.S. produces, stockpiles, and deploys munitions.

The Cost Equation Driving the Hearing

The core tension is simple but consequential: the United States cannot sustain a military munitions strategy built around weapons that cost orders of magnitude more than the threats they're designed to counter.

The Air Force's Family of Affordable Mass Missiles (FAMM) program represents the most concrete response. The service reportedly wants to buy roughly 3,010 low-cost cruise missiles in fiscal year 2026 for $656.3 million — approximately $218,000 per missile, or about one-fourteenth the cost of a Long Range Anti-Ship Missile. Anduril's Barracuda-M500 and Lockheed's CMMT are reported to be leading contenders.

Meanwhile, the Air Force conducted a live test in February 2026 of the Extended Range Attack Munition (ERAM), a low-cost cruise missile originally developed with Ukraine in mind. The Pentagon's broader $205 billion procurement budget includes the FAMM investment alongside other major munitions line items.

But congressional appropriators have funded multi-year contracts for eight critical munitions programs — not all of what the Department of Defense requested. That gap between what the Pentagon wants and what Congress has so far approved is likely to be a focal point of the hearing.

Wicker's "Rebuild the Arsenal" Push

Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS) published his 2026 Armed Services priorities under the banner of "Rebuilding the American Arsenal," making diminished munitions stockpiles and the need for affordable, mass-producible weapons a top-line concern. He has also reportedly backed a "crash program" to supply Ukraine with low-cost weapons, tying the committee's defense spending munitions agenda directly to the ongoing conflict in Eastern Europe.

The closed format of the hearing — it will be held in Room 217 of the Capitol Visitor Center before transitioning to an open session — suggests senators will be examining classified details about production capacity, stockpile levels, or operational performance that can't be discussed publicly. Ranking Member Jack Reed (D-RI) joins Wicker on a 27-member committee that includes several senators with deep defense portfolios, among them Tom Cotton (R-AR), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Joni Ernst (R-IA), and Mark Kelly (D-AZ).

Ukraine as the Real-World Laboratory

Multiple recent reports underscore how the war in Ukraine is reshaping thinking about affordable weapons systems across the defense establishment.

A March 11 analysis from New Geopolitics detailed how Ukraine has built a cost-effective, layered air defense doctrine using mobile fire groups, electronic warfare, and interceptor drones — rather than relying on the expensive systems the U.S. has traditionally favored. The article argued that "the future air-defense fight is layered, decentralized, drone-enabled, and brutally cost-sensitive."

Separately, Ukrainian defense company Fire Point is reportedly developing ballistic missiles designed as a cheaper alternative to the American ATACMS, with a Ukrainian official quoted as saying, "It must not be two missiles a month." Ukraine's Ministry of Defense has also been purchasing domestically produced surface-to-air missiles to bolster its own air defense.

These developments provide the committee with a real-world case study in what mass-produced, affordable munitions look like in combat — and what happens when a military doesn't have enough of them.

Lobbying Activity Around Low-Cost Munitions

Several defense firms with direct stakes in munitions production have been actively lobbying in the year leading up to the hearing.

Nammo Inc., a major ammunition manufacturer, filed lobbying disclosures in the first and second quarters of 2025 covering weapons and ordnance issues. Its employee PAC made approximately $15,500 in contributions to members of Congress over the past two years.

Day & Zimmermann Group Inc., which provides munitions manufacturing and military services, filed lobbying reports in each of the first three quarters of 2025. Its federal PAC, DAYPAC, distributed roughly $31,000 to congressional campaigns over the same period, including contributions to Sen. Joni Ernst — a member of the Armed Services Committee.

Mach Industries Inc., a defense startup, filed a second quarter 2025 lobbying disclosure related to low-cost munitions. No associated PAC was identified for the company.

K2 Space Corp. filed lobbying reports across three consecutive quarters in 2025, reporting $20,000 in the second quarter for defense-related work.

What's at Stake

The low-cost munitions hearing in 2026 sits at the intersection of budget reality, industrial base capacity, and strategic urgency. Whether the U.S. defense industrial base can scale production of affordable munitions fast enough to meet demand — from Ukraine, from the Indo-Pacific theater, from depleted American stockpiles — is the question the committee is trying to answer behind closed doors.

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