US Running Low on Key Missiles After Months of Strikes on Iran

The United States military has nearly run out of some of its most powerful missiles after more than five months of airstrikes against Iran, according to news reports published on Tuesday. Military experts say this raises serious concerns about whether the U.S. is ready to fight other conflicts that could break out in different parts of the world. The reports came from Reuters and CNN, both of which cited sources with knowledge of the situation.

According to Reuters, the Army has used up almost all of its Army Tactical Missile Systems, known as ATACMS, and its newer Precision Strike Missiles, called PrSM. Both types of missiles are made by Lockheed Martin and can be fired from mobile launchers called HIMARS. Each missile costs about one million dollars, and ATACMS can hit targets up to 190 miles away while carrying nearly 400 pounds of explosives.

The PrSM is a newer, more advanced missile that can travel more than 300 miles. It was designed to replace the ATACMS, but the military did not have very many of them to begin with. Experts at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, or CSIS, estimated that the U.S. had only about 90 PrSM missiles before the war with Iran even started.

The U.S. had previously sent ATACMS missiles to Ukraine during the Biden administration, which allowed Ukraine to strike targets deep inside Russia. Those shipments made the supply even smaller before the Iran conflict began. With so few missiles left, military planners may have to rely more on fighter jets and piloted aircraft if the campaign against Iran grows larger.

CNN also reported that the U.S. has used about 80 percent of its THAAD missiles and around half of its Patriot interceptors since the war started. THAAD stands for Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, and it is a system that can shoot down ballistic missiles — rockets that travel through the upper atmosphere. Before the war, the U.S. had about 452 THAAD missiles and around 2,200 Patriot missiles in its arsenal.

THAAD interceptors are launched from truck-mounted systems and can destroy short-, medium-, and long-range ballistic missiles. They can even intercept targets inside and outside Earth's atmosphere. A recent CSIS estimate found that the U.S. was left with between 234 and 278 THAAD missiles as of late July — a big drop from the 450-plus it had before the war.

U.S. allies in the Gulf region, including countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, have also expressed worry about these shrinking supplies. These nations depend on American missile defense systems to protect themselves from Iranian missiles and drone attacks. CSIS warned that lower stockpiles could force the U.S. and its allies to take more risks with interceptions.

President Trump pushed back on these reports, saying the U.S. has far more munitions than anyone in the world and far more than we need. He also said that American defense companies are currently making more weapons than ever before and are expanding their factories. However, industry experts told The Hill that it will likely take at least a few years to fully rebuild the missile stockpiles to the levels they were at before the Iran war.

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell told CNN that America's military is the most powerful in the world and has everything it needs. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also pushed back hard on CNN's coverage, posting on social media that a banner calling weapons supplies dangerously low was not true. The debate between government officials and news organizations over the true state of U.S. weapon supplies is likely to continue as the conflict with Iran goes on.