Since the Iran war began in late February, the United States has burned about 1,100 of its long-range stealth cruise missiles intended for war with China, close to the total number remaining in the U.S. stockpile. The Army has fielded more than 1,000 Tomahawk cruise missiles, about 10 times the number it currently purchases each year.
According to Department of Defense estimates and congressional officials, the Pentagon used more than 1,200 Patriot interceptor missiles in the war, valued at more than $4 million, and more than 1,000 Precision Strike and ATACMS ground-based missiles, leaving the inventory worryingly low.
The Iran war has largely depleted the U.S. military’s global supply of munitions, and forced the Pentagon to divert bombs, missiles and other hardware from commands in Asia and Europe to the Middle East. Trump administration and congressional officials say the shortages have left these regional commands less prepared to confront potential adversaries such as Russia and China, and have forced the United States to find ways to increase production to address the shortage.
The conflict has also underlined the Pentagon’s overreliance on extremely expensive missiles and munitions, particularly air-defense interceptors, as well as concerns about whether the defense industry can develop cheaper weapons, especially attack drones, far more quickly.
The Defense Department has not disclosed how many weapons it used in the 38-day war before the ceasefire took effect two weeks ago. The Pentagon says it hit more than 13,000 targets, but officials say that figure hides the vast number of bombs and missiles it used because warplanes, attack aircraft and artillery typically attack targets many times larger.
White House officials have so far declined to estimate the cost of the conflict. two independent groups Let’s just say the costs are staggering: between $28 billion and $35 billion, or less than $1 billion a day.
Defense officials have told MPs that in the first two days alone the army used weapons worth $5.6 billion.
To restore the U.S. global stockpile to its previous size, the United States will have to make difficult choices about maintaining its military strength in the meantime. “At current production rates, it could take years to recoup what we have spent,” Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said this week.
“The United States has many munitions with substantial inventories, but some critical ground-attack and missile-defense ammunition were low before the war and are low now,” said Mark F. Cancian, a retired Marine Corps colonel and senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, who recently published a Study Estimating the status of key munitions.
White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt said in a statement that “the entire premise of this story is false.” He said: “The United States has the most powerful military in the world, loaded with more than enough weapons and munitions at home and around the world to effectively defend the homeland and achieve any military operation directed by the Commander in Chief.”
Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, declined to comment on “any specific theater requirements or the details of our global resource capabilities,” citing operational security.
Some Republicans, including Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, chairman of the subcommittee that funds the Pentagon, have pressured several administrations to increase spending on munitions production. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has made that goal a top priority during his tenure.
Officials say things are becoming more dangerous for the Pentagon, as the Defense Department is waiting for Congress to approve additional funding before it can pay weapons manufacturers to make up for the US supply shortfall. In January, the administration announced it had signed a seven-year agreement with major defense contractors, including Lockheed Martin, to increase production capacity for defense systems such as missile interceptors.
The agreement called for quadrupling the production of precision-guided munitions and THAAD missile interceptors. Defense manufacturers, for their part, agreed to fund factory expansion in return for secure long-term orders.
But officials said there has been no movement to actually begin expanded production, as the Pentagon struggles with funding.
Meanwhile, the Army is increasingly using its existing arms supplies to meet Central Command’s immediate needs in the Iran war. The levels of some munitions are depleting faster than others.
For example, the Pentagon has devoted much of its inventory of stealth, long-range cruise missiles to the fight against Iran. These missiles, called Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile-Extended Range, or JASSM-ER, are launched from fighter planes and bombers and have a range of more than 600 miles. These are designed to engage tough targets beyond the range of enemy air defences.
Since the war began, the Army has used about 1,100 JASSM-ER missiles, worth about $1.1 million, with about 1,500 left in the Army’s stockpile, according to internal Pentagon estimates, said a U.S. military official and a congressional official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential war assessments.
The Tomahawks, which cost about $3.6 million each, are long-range cruise missiles that have been widely used in U.S. warfare since the first Persian Gulf War in 1991. They remain a major weapon for potential future wars, including in Asia.
“Although sufficient weapons exist to wage this war, the high expenditure of Tomahawks and other missiles in Operation Epic Fury creates risks for the United States in other theaters – particularly in the Western Pacific,” it concluded. a csis studyThe remaining Tomahawk stockpile is estimated at approximately 3,000 missiles.
Patriot interceptor missiles can cost around $4 million. The United States plans to produce about 600 of them in 2025. More than 1,200 have been used in combat so far, according to internal Pentagon estimates and congressional officials.
Overall, the cost of the war so far is between $25 billion and $35 billion A study this month by the American Enterprise Institute First compiled by Ellen McCusker, a senior Pentagon official during the Trump administration. Mr. Cancian of CSIS said in an email that he and his analysts estimated the cost of the conflict so far at about $28 billion.
The Army is also facing unexpected costs from damaged or destroyed aircraft. In a Navy SEAL Team 6 operation to rescue a downed Air Force officer in Iran, the military had to destroy two MC-130 cargo planes and at least three MH-6 helicopters inside them after the planes’ nose gear got stuck in the wet sand of a makeshift airstrip. Mr. Cancian estimated that the total cost of the lost aircraft was about $275 million. Three replacement planes eventually flew the airmen and commandos to safety, but the Pentagon did not want sensitive technology from the aircraft to fall into Iranian hands.
All regional military commanders are feeling the pressure of dwindling stocks of war material.
In Europe, the war has led to a shortage of weapons systems critical to defending NATO’s eastern flank from Russian aggression, according to Pentagon information reviewed by The New York Times.
The problem described as serious was the loss of surveillance and attack drones. The demands of the Iran war have also cut back on exercises and training. According to military officials, this harms the ability to conduct offensive operations in Europe as well as deter potential Russian attacks.
Asked about the shortcomings, the head of US European Command, General Alexus G. “Our warfighters are proud of the support we have provided to USCENTCOM in support of President Trump’s historic operations against Iran,” Grinkevich said in a statement.
But the biggest impact has been on soldiers in Asia.
Before the war with Iran began, US military commanders redirected the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group from the South China Sea to the Middle East. Since then, two Marine expeditionary units, each with about 2,200 Marines, have been sent from the Pacific to the Middle East. The Pentagon has also moved sophisticated air defenses from Asia to increase protection against Iran’s drones and rockets.
The redirected weapons include Patriot missiles and interceptors from the THAAD system in South Korea – the only Asian ally to host the advanced missile defense system, which has been deployed by the Pentagon to counter North Korea’s growing missile threat. According to American officials, now for the first time the interceptors of the system are being taken away.
Officials say U.S. readiness in the Pacific was harmed by the Pentagon’s deployment of warships and aircraft to the Middle East after the Israel-Gaza war began in October 2023 and Houthi militia forces in Yemen began attacking ships in the Red Sea to support Palestinians.
The months-long bombing campaign against the Houthis last year – an operation the Pentagon called Rough Rider – was much larger than initially reported by the Trump administration at the time. US officials said the Pentagon spent about $200 million on munitions in the first three weeks. Officials said total operating costs exceeded $1 billion when operational and personnel expenses were taken into account.
American ships and aircraft, as well as the service members who operate on them, are being pushed to what the military calls high operational tempo. Even basic equipment maintenance becomes an issue in those difficult conditions.
The head of the Army’s Indo-Pacific Command, Admiral Samuel J. A spokesman for Paparo Jr. declined to comment on weapons shipped from Asia to the Middle East.
Admiral Paparo largely ignored the issue of stockpile depletion during a Senate hearing on Tuesday, acknowledging only that “the magazine has limited limitations.”
Michael Schwartz And adam goldman Contributed reporting from London. john ismay, Helen Cooper And maggie haberman Contributed reporting from Washington.
