American forces have reportedly used up around half of all Patriot interceptors and more than 1,000 Tomahawks in the Iran war<\/p>\n
The US faces a major hurdle replenishing key missile stocks after having burned through huge quantities of Tomahawks and Patriot interceptors during the Iran war, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. According to the paper, the manufacturing push is coming \u201ctoo late,\u201d with the industry hollowed out by years of underinvestment.
\nThe US fired more than 1,000 Tomahawk cruise missiles at Iranian targets, or around one-third of its prewar inventory, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) estimated in late May, adding the stocks are expected to be replenished only by late 2030 or early 2031.
\nCSIS also estimated that Washington has used roughly half of its high-end Patriot interceptors, with the stockpile below 1,000 as of late July.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Iran sends peace terms to US<\/p>\n
Faced with the shortage, defense contractors are spending billions of dollars on factories and expanded production capacity, but the investment has yet to translate into major gains, the Wall Street Journal reported, adding that the additional missiles will arrive too late to substantially improve US inventories in any conflict over the next several years.
\n\u201cMinisters of defense have fat wallets \u2013 they walk into the shops, and there are empty shelves,\u201d Rob Bauer, former chair of the NATO Military Committee, told the newspaper.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
US allies facing five-year delay in missile deliveries \u2013 Bloomberg<\/p>\n
According to the WSJ, the issue precedes the Iran war. An Army Science Board study launched after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022 found that the US munitions industrial base had been hollowed out. \u201cIt\u2019s a miracle that we have anything that blows up,\u201d Mackenzie Eaglen, who helped coordinate the study, told the paper.
\nFor instance, Pentagon orders for the Tucson, Arizona factory \u2013 a key facility producing Tomahawks \u2013 plunged so low that the line producing the missiles was at risk of being completely shut down. In August, the facility received a $23 billion seven-year Tomahawk order, but it took more than a year to negotiate the terms, and the final agreement is still pending congressional approval.
\nWashington has also awarded RTX a provisional $20.7 billion multiyear contract for AMRAAM medium-range missiles as part of the Pentagon\u2019s \u201cArsenal of Freedom\u201d initiative. RTX earlier said it has invested about $900 million in three missile production facilities over the past three years.
\nEarlier this year, the Pentagon also struck a $58.6 billion deal for Patriot interceptors with Lockheed Martin.
\nThe Iran war has been a costly affair for the Pentagon, with a US Central Command estimate putting the overall expenditure at $43.6 billion as of early September, including $28.1 billion to replace expended ammunition. However, unnamed US officials told NBC in July that overall cost could be nearing $100 billion if damaged bases and destroyed aircraft are taken into account.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
American forces have reportedly used up around half of all Patriot interceptors and more than 1,000 Tomahawks in the Iran war The US faces a major hurdle replenishing key missile…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t