U.S. Races to Accomplish Iran Mission Before Munitions Run Out

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When the U.S. military’s top general laid out the risks to President Trump of launching a major and extended attack on Iran, one of the issues he flagged was America’s stockpile of munitions.

Now that is being put to the test, as the U.S. races to destroy Iran’s missile and drone force before it runs out of interceptors to fend off Tehran’s retaliation, current and former officials and analysts say.

The precise size of the U.S. stock of air-defense interceptors—what the Pentagon calls magazine depth—is classified. But repeated conflicts with Iran and its proxies in the Middle East have been eating into the supply of air defenses in the region.

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Iran’s retaliation on Saturday has been more ragged than in the 12-day war when it fired more than 500 missiles and many more attack drones. Israel’s announcement that Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in an airstrike could also hasten an end to the conflict, though it is far from clear who might succeed him.

Still, U.S. Central Command said Saturday that its force has already mounted a largely successful defense against hundreds of Iranian missile and drone attacks, though some have managed to hit their targets, especially in Arab Gulf states that are close to Iran. The conflict isn’t over, and there are still more U.S., Israeli and Iranian strikes to come.

“One of the challenges is you can deplete these really quickly,” said Kelly Grieco, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center think tank who used to teach at the Air Command and Staff College. “We’re using them faster than we can replace them.”

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