The White House and the Pentagon have formally pushed back against a series of reports suggesting that United States military stockpiles of offensive and defensive weaponry have reached critically low levels following months of active conflict with Iran. While various media outlets and defense analysts have raised alarms regarding the depletion of key assets, the administration maintains that the military remains fully equipped to defend national interests.
Experts have warned that low supplies of air defence interceptors, particularly those used in Patriot and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) systems, may pose a significant threat to US forces. These shortages could have knock-on effects for allies in the region who rely on American security umbrellas for protection against ballistic threats.
In a statement provided to Al Jazeera on Tuesday, President Donald Trump pushed back on claims that the US faced deficiencies in its current supply. He asserted that the United States maintains a superior arsenal compared to any other nation.
“We have far more munitions than anyone in the world, and far more than we need, despite the fact that an unprecedented amount was given away by Crooked Joe Biden and the Biden Administration to Ukraine and Europe at no cost, in one of many of their extremely dumb moves,” Trump said. He was referencing the Patriot interceptor transfers to Ukraine under former President Joe Biden following Russia’s invasion.
Trump pointed to new efforts to scale up weapons production, although experts have questioned whether supplies of air defence missiles could indeed be scaled up in a timely fashion. “And as we build up, we will start issuing more to our allies in Europe and elsewhere,” Trump added.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell also maintained that the US was not in dire straits on the issue. “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,” Parnell said in a statement to Al Jazeera.
Parnell further noted, “We have executed multiple successful operations across combatant commands while ensuring the US military possesses a deep arsenal of capabilities to protect our interests and those of our partners.”
Several reports on Monday indicated that the situation may be more pronounced than US officials have publicly acknowledged. CNN reported that the US military had depleted 80 percent of the THAAD interceptors it held prior to the war and about half of its Patriot interceptors, with sources describing the remaining levels as “dangerously low.”
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth swiftly contested the 80 percent figure and the characterisation of the threat it posed, posting “not true” and “shame on you” on X on Monday.
In an analysis published by the Washington, DC-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) on July 27, the think tank calculated that the military had just over a third of its Patriot interceptors left and about half of its THAAD interceptors. CSIS assessed that it would take at least three years, even with a recent flurry of funding, to bring supplies to pre-war levels.
The Reuters news agency and CBS News separately reported that the military has used the majority of its Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) and Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM). Unlike the Patriot and THAAD interceptors, these long-range missiles are used in offensive strikes. Two sources told Reuters that “virtually all” the missiles, which cost about $1m each, had been used.
No Trump administration official has publicly acknowledged any threats posed by munition shortages, despite the fact the administration has requested $95bn in its Fiscal Year 2027 defence budget and $21bn in a supplemental funding request to replenish its stores. In May, the administration announced an additional $25bn in Patriot interceptor sales to Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar.
Mark Cancian, a senior advisor at CSIS, noted that the US will likely endeavour to hold more interceptors back to replenish its own stockpiles. Regarding the timeline for recovery, Cancian stated, “Money will not be a problem. The problem is time.”
Multiple media reports have indicated that Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has repeatedly raised concerns behind closed doors. The situation remains sensitive, particularly after a memorandum of understanding between Washington and Tehran that had brought a halt to fighting in June collapsed, leading to renewed hostilities.
“For ATACMS and PrSM, if you run low or out, then you would have to use some other mechanism, and that would be air-delivered or sea-delivered, so you’re talking probably Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles (JASSM) or
“If we run out of Patriots, then the missiles get through.”
Such concerns were underscored by a July 17 attack on the Muwaffaq Salti airbase in Jordan, in which three US soldiers were killed when Iranian missiles were able to slip through US military and Jordanian air defence sys
“For ATACMS and PrSM, if you run low or out, then you would have to use some other mechanism, and that would be air-delivered or sea-delivered, so you’re talking probably Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles (JASSM) or Tomahawk to strike a deep target, or having aircraft fly over enemy territory,” Cancian said.
Such concerns were underscored by a July 17 attack on the Muwaffaq Salti airbase in Jordan, in which three US soldiers were killed when Iranian missiles were able to slip through US military and Jordanian air defence systems.
However, with the current level of US stockpiles, every interception of an Iranian strike weakens US deterrence capabilities against military powers like China.
“Every missile that’s used is one fewer that’s available to deter China”, Cancian said, “and we are now at a point where the joint staff are really very nervous about that”.
Meanwhile, NBC News, among other US media, has reported that the military has already taken a more judicious approach to intercepting Iranian attacks deemed unlikely to cause major harm.
The strategy can help to preserve interceptors, but can also increase the chances of miscalculation.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been warning of a dwindling supply of Patriot interceptors to block Russian attacks.
He has repeatedly sought US approval to produce the weapons in Ukraine, a permission only Japan and Germany currently have.
On Wednesday, Zelenskyy said that allies have supplied Kyiv with far fewer air defence interceptors in 2026, accounting for just a third of the deliveries from the same period last year.