Natasha Leake
The United States has reportedly used up “virtually all” of its stockpile of missiles in five months of war with Iran.
The affected weapons are understood to be the army’s highly accurate surface-to-surface munitions, known as Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) and Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM). The US has used “virtually all” of these, according to two sources who spoke to Reuters.
There has been speculation about the severity of the shortfall for some time, with an official warning last month that the US military did not have enough for a return to “all-out war”. The latest reports will raise eyebrows across Washington, though the sources declined to say how many of each munition the US had left.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened Iran with devastating strikes, only to call them off at the last minute.
The missiles – which cost more than $US1 million ($1.42 million) each – are an important part of the military’s arsenal, allowing accurate strikes from a safe distance.
ATACMS supplied by the US have played a key role in the war in Ukraine, allowing Kyiv’s forces to attack targets inside Russia. The PrSM is a newer, more advanced generation that will replace the shorter-range Atacms.
The dramatic rundown means that the Pentagon will have to rely more on riskier, piloted bombing missions if the US president follows through with threats to relaunch large-scale attacks on Iran.
Trump launched the Iran war jointly with Israel in February, predicting that the conflict would last a short time.
But as the war drags on, three people familiar with the matter expressed worry that the falling missile supplies could limit the US’s ability to deter adversaries in a potential future attack, including Russia and China.
A fourth person familiar with the matter said that while Central Command – which oversees US forces in the Middle East – has nearly used up the land-based missiles it had before the war began, it has been able to reload from US military supplies elsewhere in the world.
Asked for comment on the stockpile data, the White House stated that the US had “far more munitions than anyone in the world” and “far more than we need”.
“Our defence companies are, at this moment, making more munitions than they have ever made before, in addition to expanding their plants and equipment at record levels,” a Trump spokesperson said.
Analysts agree that certain munitions, including artillery shells and several types of missiles, are being produced at record levels but caution that supplies might fall short of what is needed for a prolonged war.
Lockheed Martin, which makes the ATACMS and PrSMs, along with the anti-ballistic missile THAAD system, did not immediately respond to questions about Trump’s statements or supply levels. Raytheon, which makes Tomahawk missiles and Patriot interceptors, two important US weapons, also did not immediately respond.
Sean Parnell, the chief Pentagon spokesman, said: “America’s military is the most powerful in the world and has everything it needs to execute at the time and place of the president’s choosing.
“We have executed multiple successful operations across combatant commands while ensuring the US military possesses a deep arsenal of capabilities to protect our people and our interests.”
The supply figures have circulated inside the federal government over the last week during tense conversations inside the Trump administration about how much longer the US can continue striking Iran without drawing down the stockpile to levels that would limit the military’s ability to respond to crises elsewhere.
One of the sources said the drawdown of the ATACMS and PrSM stockpiles reflected a decision by the Trump administration to avoid riskier ways of attacking Iranian targets, such as by using piloted aircraft to drop bombs.
Because these weapons allow the military to attack targets from a distance, analysts say they would be valuable in a war against an adversary with strong air defences, such as China.
They have been used to strike targets inside Iran, according to a March report by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
According to the report, PrSM stockpiles were low to start with, since it is a relatively new munition, but the US military has ordered a large number of them for 2027. The US Army has said that ATACMS are being phased out and that production is shifting to the newer PrSM missiles.
Military leaders have for weeks warned the president that stockpiles of defensive weapons – including Patriot interceptors, which are effective against ballistic missiles – were dwindling, said two of the sources.
Last week, several media outlets reported that Trump had decided not to launch another massive offensive inside Iran in part because his military advisers had warned about the US stockpile.
A US official disputed those accounts, saying that the president chose not to move forward with another attack because of pressure from Persian Gulf states.
The Middle East conflict has sparked intense debate about Trump’s authority to wage war against Iran without congressional authorisation. No request for a declaration of war or an authorisation to use military force has been submitted to Congress.
