Pete Hegseth snapped at a reporter who asked whether the US Army had nearly exhausted its ATACMS missiles, calling it 'the kind of stupid question I would never answer', and, when pressed on whether both unitary and cluster variants had been used, replied: 'Why would I answer that?'
The exchange took place on 24 August in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, during a Pentagon event focused on expanding US weapons production. Hegseth said the government was pushing longer-term contracts and sharply higher output for munitions it expected to need.
