Due to the war in Iran, the US faced a shortage of vital military equipment
Bloomberg reports this.
According to sources familiar with confidential details of the operation, the US has already used up around two-thirds of its total stockpile of JASSM-ER missiles.
At the end of March, an order was issued to remove the missiles, each worth $1.5 million, from Pacific bases and facilities in the US for transport to Central Command facilities and the British base at Fairford.
Once the transfers are complete, US stocks will be left with only around 425 serviceable JASSM-ER missiles out of the 2,300 units in the pre-war arsenal. This stock will be sufficient for just one massive sortie by 17 B-1B bombers.
In the first four weeks of the war alone, the US Air Force fired over 1,000 such missiles. The JASSM-ER has a range of over 600 miles (around 960 km). This allows it to strike protected targets deep within Iran without entering the range of its air defences.
Consequently, the main threat to the Pentagon now is the speed at which stocks can be replenished. Lockheed Martin can produce a maximum of 860 missiles per year, whereas over a thousand have been used in a single month of the war in Iran. It will take years to replenish the arsenal, which could potentially affect US defence capabilities and the ability to sustain military operations against China.
It should be noted that the weapons shortage has affected more than just JASSM-ER missiles. Indeed, during the US and Israeli operation in Iran, the Gulf states have almost exhausted their stocks of missiles for Patriot air defence systems.
Furthermore, in the first four weeks since the start of the war against Iran, the US has already fired over 850 Tomahawks. Some Pentagon officials are alarmed by the speed at which stocks of precision-guided munitions are ‘disappearing’.
Overall, it has been calculated that in just the first 12 days of the operation in Iran, the US used up stocks of precision-guided munitions that had been built up over many years. Restoring these stocks will take a long time, and it will be very costly.
