Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Sunday that the Pentagon will review whether Arizona Democratic Senator Mark Kelly improperly disclosed classified information when Kelly spoke publicly about the strain the war with Iran has placed on U.S. weapons stockpiles.
The dispute began after Kelly appeared on CBS's Face the Nation Sunday morning and discussed what he described as rapidly depleting inventories of key munitions, including Tomahawk and ATACMS missiles. Kelly said those details came from open-door Pentagon briefings provided to Congress.
Hegseth responded that evening on social media. "'Captain' Mark Kelly strikes again," he posted. "Now he's blabbing on TV (falsely & dumbly) about a *CLASSIFIED* Pentagon briefing he received. Did he violate his oath ... again? @DeptofWar legal counsel will review."
Kelly, a retired Navy captain, fired back on social media with a clip from a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing held the previous week, in which Hegseth himself can be seen saying it would take years to replenish stockpiles to pre-war levels. "We had this conversation in a public hearing a week ago and you said it would take 'years' to replenish some of these stockpiles," Kelly wrote. "That's not classified, it's a quote from you."
During the Face the Nation interview, Kelly did not detail specific volumes of weapons used or remaining in U.S. inventories. Whether his comments crossed any legal threshold for disclosure is unclear. "It's shocking how deep we've gone into these magazines," Kelly said in the interview.
The Pentagon has said it has struck some 13,000 targets in the war with Iran, with some targets requiring multiple strikes. Acting Pentagon Comptroller Jules Hurst III told lawmakers in late April that the war had cost at least $25 billion to that point, with much of that spending going toward munitions. An analysis from the Center for Strategic and International Studies found the U.S. has used roughly half of its munitions inventory fighting Iran and that restoring pre-war stock levels could take up to four years.
Hegseth has maintained that the United States has sufficient ammunition to continue fighting. This would be the second time he has sought to punish Kelly. The first came after Kelly and several other Democratic veterans who had served in the military or intelligence community posted a video advising U.S. troops not to follow illegal orders. Hegseth moved to demote Kelly at that time, a step that would have reduced his military pension.
That effort has run into legal resistance. A three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals expressed skepticism about Hegseth's attempt to punish Kelly during oral arguments last week.
