Washington – A new report based on internal Pentagon estimates and congressional officials says the 38-day conflict with Iran has drained US stockpiles of critical weapons, including long-range stealth cruise missiles, Tomahawks, and Patriot interceptors, to their lowest levels in years.
What happened
According to The New York Times, the US military has used approximately 1,100 of its long-range stealth cruise missiles during the war. That number is close to the total remaining in the American stockpile.
The military also fired more than 1,000 Tomahawk cruise missiles. That is about 10 times the number the United States buys each year.
More than 1,200 Patriot interceptor missiles have been used. Each missile costs more than 4 million dollars.
More than 1,000 Precision Strike and ATACMS ground-based missiles have also been fired.
Why it matters
The United States entered this conflict without a declaration of war from Congress and without authorization from the United Nations Security Council. Critics say the military campaign violates the UN Charter, as it was not justified as self-defense against an armed attack.
Because of the heavy use of munitions in the Iran war, the Pentagon has been forced to rush bombs and missiles from military commands in Asia and Europe to the Middle East. This has left those regional commands less prepared to confront other adversaries, including Russia and China.
The total cost of the conflict so far is estimated between 28 billion dollars and 35 billion dollars , or nearly 1 billion dollars per day , according to two independent groups.
The bottom line
A war critics call legally unauthorized under international law has left the Pentagon’s ability to fight a second major conflict in serious doubt.
