US only has 25% of all Patriot missile interceptors needed for Pentagon’s military plans

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The United States only has about 25% of the Patriot missile interceptors it needs for all of the Pentagon’s military plans after burning through stockpiles in the Middle East in recent months, an alarming depletion that led to the Trump administration freezing the latest transfer of munitions to Ukraine.

The stockpile of the Patriot missiles has fallen so low that it raised concern inside the Pentagon that it could jeopardize potential US military operations, and deputy defense secretary, Stephen Feinberg, authorized the transfer to be halted while they reviewed where weapons were being sent.

Donald Trump appeared to reverse at least part of that decision on Monday when he told reporters in advance of a dinner at the White House with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he would “send some more weapons” to Ukraine, although he did not disclose whether that would include Patriot systems.

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But the determination last month to halt the transfer, as described by four people directly familiar with the matter, was based in large part on the Pentagon’s global munitions tracker, which is used to generate the minimum level of munitions required to carry out the US military’s operations plans.

According to the tracker, which is managed by the joint chiefs of staff and the Pentagon’s defense security cooperation agency, the stockpiles of a number of critical munitions have been below that floor for several years since the Biden administration started sending military aid to Ukraine.

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