US Missile Stockpiles Depleted in Iran War

The United States military has significantly depleted its stockpiles of critical missiles during a seven-week war with Iran that concluded in a fragile ceasefire earlier this month, according to an analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The conflict, which began in March under Operation Epic Fury, involved intensive airstrikes and defensive operations that consumed nearly half of the U.S. inventory of Precision Strike Missiles, more than half of Terminal High Altitude Area Defense interceptors, and almost 50 percent of Patriot air defense missiles. These figures align with classified Pentagon assessments, sources familiar with the data said.

The war saw U.S. forces expend at least 45 percent of Precision Strike Missiles, which are ballistic systems developed by Lockheed Martin to target high-value assets. Defensive systems bore the brunt of the usage, with over half of the THAAD interceptors—designed to counter short-, medium-, and intermediate-range ballistic missiles—deployed to neutralize more than 2,000 Iranian drones and over 500 ballistic missiles in the early phases. Patriot interceptors, the Army's primary surface-to-air defense against aircraft...