The Iran war’s troubling missile math
The Iran war’s troubling missile math
As the conflict with Iran entered its fourth day, at least one Gulf ally of the US is facing a shortage of essential interceptor weapons, according to two sources. “There’s no full-blown crisis yet, but faster delivery would help,” a regional official shared with CNN, noting a pending request from their government for additional interceptors.
“Each intercept represents hundreds of hours of training, readiness, and technology all coming together to work as designed,” Caine said at a press briefing on Monday on the US-Israel military operation against Iran.
Before the war began, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine and other military leaders warned Trump that a prolonged military campaign could affect US weapons stockpiles, particularly those supporting Israel and Ukraine, according to multiple sources. The US has been “burning” through long-range precision-guided missiles over the last several days, as per a person familiar with the matter.
Now that the war expanded, it’s a numbers game: How many interceptors will the US and its regional allies need to continuously shoot down Iranian missiles, and how many of those could be diverted from Pacific stockpiles? US rivals like China are closely monitoring the situation.
Trump appeared to address concerns over dwindling stockpiles in a Truth Social post Monday night. He claimed US munitions supplies “at the medium and upper medium grade” have “never been higher or better,” and that the nation has a “virtually unlimited supply of these weapons.” “Wars can be fought ‘forever,’ and very successfully, using just these supplies,” Trump continued. He didn’t specify which munitions he was referring to.
Trump also noted that “at the highest end, we have a good supply, but are not where we want to be,” critiquing Biden for sending “so much of the high end” to Ukraine in support of its defense against Russian attacks. Biden administration officials often cited concerns about depleting stockpiles as a reason for their initial hesitation in providing Ukraine with certain long-range air defense and strike munitions.
“Compare that to the six or seven interceptors that can be built a month.”
Adm. Brad
