US faces years long shortfall in Tomahawk, Patriot, THAAD

A new analysis finds the United States military faces a multi-year challenge to replenish stockpiles of key weapons heavily used in the recent conflict with Iran, raising questions about readiness for a potential future confrontation with China. The report, released Wednesday by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), states that while the U.S. has sufficient munitions for any plausible scenario in the Iran war, the depleted inventories have created a "window of vulnerability" for a conflict in the Western Pacific.

The weapons in question are Tomahawk cruise missiles, used for deep strikes, and Patriot and THAAD interceptors, which defend against missiles and drones. The think tank emphasized that the time needed to rebuild these inventories has become a major concern, projecting the vulnerability will last for several years until stocks return to previous levels and longer before reaching levels desired by war planners.

This assessment comes amid heightened tensions with China, which has a stated goal of being capable of taking Taiwan by force by 2027, a timeline many experts view as aspirational. Chinese President Xi Jinping recently warned that mishandling...