The United States military has expended nearly its entire inventory of advanced, long-range surface-to-surface precision missiles during the five-month war against Iran, according to internal stockpile data reviewed by three people familiar with the matter, raising fresh alarm inside the Trump administration over the country’s readiness for future conflicts with Russia or China.
The U.S. has fired “virtually all” of its available Army Tactical Missile Systems, known as ATACMS, and its newer Precision Strike Missiles, or PrSM, since the campaign began in February, according to Reuters, which first reported the extent of the depletion. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity and declined to specify exactly how many of the weapons remain in American arsenals.
President Donald Trump launched the campaign against Iran alongside Israel in February, predicting a swift resolution to the conflict. Nearly six months later, with no durable settlement in place, the war has instead become a sustained drain on some of the most expensive and strategically significant munitions in the American arsenal — weapons that cost more than $1 million apiece and are considered central to deterring adversaries with sophisticated air defenses, chiefly China.
Regional Stockpiles Emptied, Global Reserves Cannibalized
U.S. Central Command has effectively emptied the pre-war regional arsenal of land-based precision weapons it maintained across the Middle East. Commanders have since been forced to replenish forward-deployed launch batteries by drawing down reserves held elsewhere around the world, according to the reporting.
One of the sources told Reuters that the depletion stems directly from a Trump administration decision to strike Iranian targets from extreme distances using ground-fired ballistic missiles rather than risk manned aircraft in contested airspace. The drawdown of the ATACMS and PrSM stockpiles reflected a decision by the Trump administration to avoid riskier ways of attacking Iranian targets, such as by using piloted aircraft to drop bombs. J
The strategy has kept American pilots out of Iranian airspace, but it has come at a steep material cost. Supply figures have circulated inside the federal government over the last week during tense conversations inside the Trump administration about how much longer the U.S. can continue striking Iran without drawing the stockpile down to levels that would limit the military’s ability to respond to crises elsewhere.
A separate U.S. official pushed back on the notion that dwindling supplies were driving strategy, telling Reuters that a recent White House decision to scrap a planned offensive was the product of diplomatic pressure from Gulf states rather than munitions shortages.
Air Defense and Naval Arsenals Show Parallel Strain
The depletion is not confined to offensive strike weapons. Washington has expended roughly 65 percent of its Patriot interceptors and more than 38 percent of its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, interceptors since the war began. Separate analysis from the Center for Strategic and International Studies estimated in late July that fewer than 827 Patriot interceptors and fewer than 278 THAAD interceptors remained in U.S. stockpiles, down from a pre-war Patriot inventory CSIS had put at roughly 2,200. CSIS defense analyst and retired Marine Corps Col. Mark Cancian said continued fighting with Iran could deplete stockpiles so low that it could impact the U.S. military’s ability to fight with China or even North Korea.
Navy warships have simultaneously fired nearly half of the entire global American inventory of Tomahawk cruise missiles, the primary tool the fleet uses to strike fortified positions without exposing pilots to enemy fire.
The PrSM, which entered service with a limited initial inventory, was designed to eventually replace the ATACMS — a system that has also been extensively supplied to Ukraine for strikes against Russian territory. The Army has said it is winding down ATACMS production entirely, and substantial new PrSM deliveries are not scheduled to arrive until 2027, with production planned at roughly 400 units annually.
Congress and Analysts Warn of a Widening Readiness Gap
The shortages have become a recurring flashpoint in congressional hearings, with lawmakers from both parties acknowledging the problem even as they diverge on its cause. Some Republicans have pointed to Patriot systems sent to Ukraine after Russia’s 2022 invasion as a root contributor, while Democrats have cast the munitions drawdown as a direct consequence of a war Trump launched without congressional authorization.
CSIS researchers Mark Cancian and Chris H. Park wrote in their report that the United States has enough munitions for any plausible scenario in the Iran war, but the depleted inventories have created a window of vulnerability for a potential Western Pacific conflict, and the time needed to rebuild those inventories has become a major concern.
Michael O’Hanlon of the Brookings Institution offered a more measured assessment, saying he does not believe the military’s ability to deter China or North Korea has suffered yet, though he cautioned that deterrence could erode “at some point” if the drawdown continues.
Defense Contractors Race to Rebuild Inventories
Lockheed Martin, which manufactures ATACMS, PrSM and the THAAD system, did not immediately respond to questions about the reported supply levels. Raytheon, which produces Tomahawk missiles and Patriot interceptors, likewise did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Raytheon has separately struck a preliminary multi-year agreement with the Pentagon intended to sharply accelerate Tomahawk production, part of a broader push by defense officials to expand manufacturing capacity industry-wide.
That push has taken on new urgency at the Pentagon, where officials including War Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine have met with missile manufacturers to press for output to be doubled or even quadrupled amid mounting concern over readiness for a potential confrontation with China.
White House and Pentagon Reject Readiness Concerns
Despite the documented shortages, the administration has continued to project confidence in the country’s overall munitions supply. Trump said in a statement that the United States maintains overwhelming superiority in global weapons production.
“Our defense companies are, at this moment, making more munitions than they have ever made before, in addition to expanding their plants and equipment at record levels,” Trump said.
Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell echoed that message, insisting the armed forces retain full operational flexibility to act wherever and whenever the president chooses.
“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. “We have executed multiple successful operations across combatant commands while ensuring the U.S. military possesses a deep arsenal of capabilities to protect our people and our interests.”
Whether that confidence holds will depend in large part on how much longer the Iran campaign continues, and on how quickly American defense manufacturers can restock an arsenal that officials themselves acknowledge has been stretched thinner than at any point in recent memory.