A handful of days is not the same as two months. And dropping a few bombs with the intention of destroying specific sites of the Iranian nuclear program is not the same as bombing for several weeks in a row and having to provide anti-aircraft defenses to Gulf allies to repel Iranian attacks and “another very distant country called Ukraine,” as the White House Press Secretary said this Wednesday.
The intensity of the fire is proving costly. In the early days of the war, the United States spent about $2 billion a day, although that figure has fallen to around $1 billion and is expected to continue falling as the war continues, according to a person familiar with a preliminary Defense Department analysis cited by The Guardian.
Thus, the Trump Administration plans to meet this Friday at the White House with executives from the country’s largest defense contracting companies to ask them to accelerate weapons production, while the Pentagon tries to replenish supplies due to the attacks against Iran, according to Reuters.
Companies such as Lockheed Martin and RTX, Raytheon’s parent company, along with other major suppliers, have been called to a meeting that demonstrates the urgency felt in the Trump Administration to reinforce weapons reserves after the operation in Iran is depleting ammunition.
But the Trump Administration is trying to give an optimistic message. This Thursday, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said: “Our commitment to our mission objectives only increases as our advantages continue to grow, we are not short of ammunition. Our reserves of defensive and offensive weapons allow us to maintain this campaign as long as necessary, and our ammunition status only increases as our advantage increases our capabilities. We have barely begun to fight. The amount of combat power we will be able to project on Iran is much more than it currently is. The politically correct wars of the past are the opposite of what we are doing here.”
Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022 and Israel began its genocide in Gaza following the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023, the US has spent billions of dollars on weapons stockpiles, including artillery systems, ammunition and anti-tank missiles. And the current war against Iran is consuming US allies in the Middle East with longer-range missiles than those supplied to kyiv.
Thus, it is expected that this Friday’s meeting will serve to pressure weapons manufacturers to accelerate the increase in production. Trump told Politico in an interview Tuesday that “defense companies are working at full speed to make everything we need. They are under emergency orders.”
The open debates in Washington over the possible invocation of a Defense Production Act highlight the administration’s and Congress’s growing concern about U.S. stockpiles in the midst of a war that Trump says could take at least a month to achieve its goals and that he has suggested could drag on indefinitely. It is also highlighting the enormous volume of munitions that the United States is using to attack Iran and to defend itself against Iranian attacks throughout the Middle East.
On Tuesday, the commander of US Central Command, Admiral Brad Cooper, said: “We are less than 100 hours into this operation and we have already attacked almost 2,000 targets with more than 2,000 munitions.”
Even a relatively short war can significantly deplete US missile reserves: The US spent about a quarter of its stockpile of high-end Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile interceptors during Israel’s 12-day war with Iran last June, thwarting attacks at a rate that far exceeds production, according to CNN. The US-made THAAD mobile anti-missile system is vehicle-launched, with eight interceptors per launch vehicle.
The Missile Defense Project of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, estimated that In 2025, the United States fired up to 20% of the Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) interceptors it was expected to have available, and between 20% and 50% of the THAAD missiles. The report added that spending on THAAD was “concerning,” as delivery data suggests the US is firing THAAD missiles at a higher rate without increasing production to compensate.
One of the Pentagon’s main concerns is maintaining a sufficient stock of interceptors for THAAD, which US forces also operate in South Korea and Guam, in order to deter North Korea and China.
The Pentagon is also looking to replenish stocks of Patriot and Standard Missile interceptors, which also eliminate aerial threats and are used to defend against Iranian missiles and drones, The Wall Street Journal reports. The Patriots respond to lower-flying threats, while the SM-3s can intercept ballistic missiles above the Earth’s atmosphere.
Air defense interceptors are not the only munitions in short supply. The United States is also using sea-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles, known as TLAM, and aircraft-launched weapons against Iranian targets. This follows Operation Rough Rider, last year’s US campaign in which the United States used long-range precision weapons against Houthi militants based in Yemen.
“A distant country called Ukraine”
In a post on his social media this Monday, Trump blamed the supplies approved by Biden for Ukraine for the lack of more advanced weapons reserves. And in his eagerness to blame his predecessor, he had no problem insulting the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, whom he called PT Barnum, a well-known American trickster of the 19th century: “US ammunition reserves have never been so high or so good in terms of medium and medium-high quality. As I was informed today, we have a practically unlimited supply of these weapons. Wars can be fought ‘forever’ and very successfully using only these supplies (which are better than the best weapons from other countries!). At the top end, we have a good supply, but we are not where we want to be.”
“We have many more high-quality weapons stored in peripheral countries,” Trump lamented: “Sleepy Joe Biden spent all his time and our country’s money GIVING it all to PT Barnum (Zelensky!) of Ukraine, worth hundreds of billions of dollars, and while he gave away much of the best (FREE!), he didn’t bother to replace it. Fortunately, I rebuilt the military in my first term and continue to do so. America is supplied and ready to WIN.”
Along the same lines, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said this Wednesday: “For four years we had a very stupid and incompetent leader in the White House who gave away many of our best weapons in exchange for nothing, for free, to another very distant country called Ukraine.”
“I am deeply concerned about Ukraine,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., a member of the Senate Army Services Committee, told Time magazine: “Just plain common sense, our resources and supplies are limited, and I think at some point we will find ourselves in the difficult position of having to tell Ukraine what is coming.”
But 24 hours after that derogatory comment about Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reported Washington’s request for help to combat Iranian drones, which caused the death of six American soldiers in Kuwait, in which kyiv has experience because they are used by Russia.
“We received a request from the United States to provide specific support in terms of protection against the ‘shaheds’ in the Middle East region“, says Zelensky in X. “I gave instructions to provide the necessary means and ensure the presence of Ukrainian specialists who can guarantee the required security. “Ukraine helps partners who help ensure our security and protect the lives of our people.”
Last Tuesday, members of the Trump Administration told members of Congress during a closed-door meeting that Iran’s Shahed drones represented a major challenge and that U.S. air defenses could not intercept all of them. Drones, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Caine acknowledged, are posing a bigger problem than anticipated, according to CNN. They are known to fly low and slowly, a characteristic that allows them to evade air defenses more easily than ballistic missiles.
Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby, speaking before the Council on Foreign Relations, acknowledged the possible need for additional funding: “As far as costs go, I understand there may be new requests.”
The truth is that this Friday’s meeting at the White House comes as Deputy Secretary of Defense Steve Feinberg has been leading the Pentagon’s work in recent days on a supplemental budget request of around $50 billion that could be released as soon as this Friday.
The new money would go to supply weapons used in recent conflicts, including those in the Middle East. The figure is preliminary and could change.
The push to increase production has intensified following US military strikes against Iran, where the US has deployed Tomahawk cruise missiles, F-35 fighter jets and attack drones. Tomahawk missile manufacturer Raytheon has a new agreement with the Pentagon to increase production to 1,000 units a year. The Pentagon currently plans to purchase 57 of these missiles in 2026 at an average cost of $1.3 million each, Reuters reports.
Concern in Gulf countries
At least one of the United States’ allies in the Gulf is already running out of ammunition to defend itself against Iranian missile and drone attacks, two sources tell CNN. “There is no panic yet, but the sooner they arrive, the better,” a regional source told CNN, referring to the request that his Government has made to Washington for more interceptors.
It is another reflection of concern throughout the region, including Israel, about the weapons reserves necessary to defend itself against Iranian attacks, especially now that Trump has proposed prolonging the attacks.
Before the war began, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine and other military leaders warned Trump that a prolonged military campaign could strain U.S. weapons stockpiles, particularly supplies to Israel and Ukraine, according to CNN.
“Each interception represents hundreds of hours of training, preparation and technology coming together to function as intended,” Caine said at a news conference Monday.
Source: www.eldiario.es
