When the U.S. military’s top general laid out the risks to President Trump of launching a major and extended attack on Iran, one of the issues he flagged was America’s stockpile of munitions.
Now that is being put to the test, as the U.S. races to destroy Iran’s missile and drone force before it runs out of interceptors to fend off Tehran’s retaliation, current and former officials and analysts say.
The precise size of the U.S. stock of air-defense interceptors—what the Pentagon calls magazine depth—is classified. But repeated conflicts with Iran and its proxies in the Middle East have been eating into the supply of air defenses in the region.
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Air-defense interceptors aren’t the only munitions that are in short supply. The U.S. is also expending sea-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles, widely known as TLAMs, and aircraft-launched weapons against Iranian targets. This comes on the heels of Operation Rough Rider, the U.S. campaign last year when the U.S. used long-range precision weapons against Yemen-based Houthi militants.
“The Trump administration has fired TLAMS at an extraordinary rate in operations around the globe, in the Middle East against Iran and the Houthis as well as in Nigeria on Christmas Day,” said Becca Wasser, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security.
Those weapons are well-suited for striking infrastructure and would be in high demand in the early weeks of a potential conflict with China.