After 13 consecutive nights of airstrikes, the Pentagon on Friday paused its strikes against Iran. One reason is that the US stockpile of Patriot missiles and other air defenses is shrinking at an alarming rate, according to information provided to The New York Times.
The United States has been forced to choose which Iranian missiles and drones to intercept in order to conserve its dwindling stockpile, according to two senior officials NBC News spoke to.
One explanation for the shortage is that the American defense industry has been operating at "medium speed" in recent years, according to Lieutenant Colonel Johan Huovinen, a military expert at the Finnish National Defense University.
The reason for the production rate is that the US has not had this type of war since it entered Iraq 23 years ago, says Johan Huovinen.
Stocks have been depleted to some extent, partly because equipment has been donated to Ukraine.
Classified warehouses
President Donald Trump has ordered American arms companies to increase production. He has also promised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that the country will be allowed to produce its own Patriot missiles, so that the United States does not have to give away ammunition.
But it will take six months to a year before Ukraine can have a production line for this type of robot, says Johan Huovinen.
The amount of ammunition used and how much is in stockpiles is classified, but by April the Pentagon had fired nearly half of its Patriot missiles and at least half of its more advanced THAAD missiles, which are designed to intercept ballistic missiles, according to an analysis of public data by the Center for Strategic & International Studies, a think tank.
Denying lack
It takes over two years to manufacture a single Patriot missile. Last week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth asked the Senate for an additional $87 billion to address “critical deficiencies,” including in equipment.
The shortages have arisen at a sensitive time, with the Pentagon saying China has an increasing capacity to invade Taiwan. CSIS analysts speak of a “window of vulnerability” where the US would not have sufficient ammunition stockpiles if a conflict with China were to break out in the Pacific.
However, Donald Trump denies that the US has any shortage of missiles. In a statement to The Wall Street Journal on Sunday, he said that the US has “significantly more ammunition than any other country in the world, and significantly more than we need.”
