United States President Donald Trump has vowed to hunt down “leakers” after several news reports detailed a dangerous depletion of munitions stockpiles amid the ongoing US-Israeli war on Iran. While several reports had previously documented munitions depletions since the war began on February 28, the latest reports painted a more dire picture of the nation’s military readiness.
Reuters and CBS News reported that the military had burned through nearly all of its offensive Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMSs) and Precision Strike Missiles (PrSMs). Experts warned that these shortages could require the military to rely on more perilous close-range and aerial attacks in the event of a renewed escalation.
A CNN report highlighting low levels of Patriot and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptors has caused further concern, with analysts noting there is no viable short-term alternative to these air defence missiles. Replenishments of pre-war stockpiles are expected to take years, even with increased production efforts.
Still, Trump on Thursday again denied that the US faced any strategic disadvantage when it came to weapons stores after five months of war. “The US has massive amounts of ‘munitions,’ especially of certain types,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social account.
He added that “large amounts are being manufactured and shipped to the U.S. as needed” and that defence contractors are “building the largest number of plants and factories in our country’s history”. Trump further stated, “The ‘leakers’ of these treasonous statements are being hunted down. Long-term jail sentences will be sought!”
In a separate post on Thursday, Trump defended Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, saying he was “extremely happy” with his stewardship of the Pentagon. The president was responding to a Washington Post report claiming he had confronted Hegseth during a cabinet meeting at Camp David last week, accusing the Pentagon chief of misleading him on munitions shortages. The president reportedly charged that Hegseth had previously assured him the issue “had been fixed”.
The Washington Post reported that Hegseth, who has long championed a militaristic approach to Iran, blamed Deputy Secretary of Defense Stephen Feinberg for the shortages and for failing to keep the president updated. Meanwhile, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth described the leaked information as “not true”.
Separately, the Washington, DC-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) calculated on July 27 that the military had just over a third of its Patriot interceptors left and about half of its THAAD interceptors. Speaking to Al Jazeera on Wednesday, retired US Marine Corps colonel Mark Cancian, a co-author of the analysis, said current levels are already hurting US deterrence capabilities against powers like China.
The killing of three US soldiers in an Iranian strike on a military base in Jordan on July 17 has further underscored those concerns. “We don’t have that many left, and there are no good substitutes,” Cancian said. “If we run out of Patriots, then the missiles get through.”
Trump called the story “fake” and “treasonous” as he hailed US military operations in Venezuela and the war in Iran, which he said was “going very well!”
In his statements Thursday, Trump did not provide further details on his claims the US, the largest arms producer in the world, was receiving weapons shipments from abroad.
CNN’s report, released on Tuesday, said that the US military had depleted 80 percent of the THAAD interceptors it had prior to the war and about half of its Patriot interceptors.
Only Japan and Germany currently have licences to produce Patriot interceptors.
A shortage of interceptors has also reportedly led to the military taking a more judicious approach to missile interceptions, increasing the likelihood of miscalculations, he noted.