The US Army has used up much of its global stockpile of highly accurate long-range missiles during its five-month war with Iran, Reuters reported in an exclusive citing three people familiar with the data, raising concerns about the military's readiness for future conflicts.
According to Reuters, the missiles in question are principally the Army's surface-to-surface weapons, known as Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) and Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM). Two of the sources told the news agency the US has used virtually all of these weapons, a detail Reuters said had not been previously reported.
These long-range munitions, which cost more than $1 million each, form an important part of the military's arsenal, allowing precise strikes from a safe distance. Reuters noted that US-supplied ATACMS have played a key role in the war in Ukraine, enabling Ukrainian forces to strike targets inside Russia, while the PrSM is a newer, more advanced system intended to eventually replace the shorter-range ATACMS.
The steep decline in precision, long-range missile stocks means President Donald Trump may need to rely more heavily on riskier, piloted bombing missions if he relaunches large-scale attacks on Iran, according to the Reuters report. The sources declined to say exactly how many of each munition the US had left.
Trump launched the war against Iran jointly with Israel in February, predicting it would be short-lived. As the conflict has dragged on, the three sources told Reuters they were concerned that falling missile supplies could limit America's ability to deter adversaries, including Russia and China. A fourth source told the news agency that despite the high rate of use, the US retains the ability to resupply, noting that Central Command, which oversees American forces in the Middle East, has been able to draw on US military stocks from around the world.
Asked by Reuters for comment on the stockpile data, the White House issued a statement from Trump saying the US had "far more munitions than anyone in the world" and "far more than we need," and that American defence companies were producing munitions at record levels while expanding their plants and equipment. Analysts cited by Reuters agree that certain munitions, including artillery shells and several missile types, are being produced at record levels, but caution that supplies may still fall short of what a prolonged war would require.
According to Reuters, Lockheed Martin, which manufactures the ATACMS, PrSM and the THAAD anti-ballistic missile system, did not immediately respond to questions about Trump's statement or about current supply levels, nor did Raytheon, maker of the Tomahawk missile and the Patriot interceptor system. Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell told Reuters that the US military remains the most powerful in the world and has everything it needs to act at the time and place of the president's choosing.
Concerns over defensive stockpiles too
The Reuters report states that the supply figures have circulated inside the federal government over the past week, amid tense discussions within the Trump administration over how much longer the US can continue striking Iran without depleting stockpiles to a point that would limit the military's ability to respond to crises elsewhere.
One of the sources told Reuters that the drawdown of ATACMS and PrSM stocks reflected a decision by the administration to avoid riskier means of striking Iranian targets, such as piloted bombing runs. Analysts say these missiles would be especially valuable in a conflict against an adversary with strong air defences, such as China. According to a March report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) cited by Reuters, PrSM stockpiles were already low before the war began, since the system is relatively new, though the US military has ordered large numbers for delivery in 2027, as the Army phases out ATACMS in favour of the newer PrSM.
Military leaders have for weeks warned Trump that stockpiles of defensive weapons, including Patriot interceptors, which are effective against ballistic missiles, were dwindling, two of the sources told Reuters. Several media outlets reported last week that Trump had decided against launching another large-scale offensive inside Iran partly because of these warnings from military advisers, though a US official disputed that account to Reuters, saying the decision instead reflected pressure from Gulf states.
Reuters also reports that the conflict has sparked debate over Trump's authority to continue hostilities against Iran without congressional authorisation, noting that no request for a declaration of war or authorisation to use military force has been submitted to Congress.
A CSIS report published last week and cited by Reuters estimated that around 65% of Patriot interceptors had been expended between February and July, and that US stockpiles of THAAD ballistic missile interceptors were at least 38% lower than at the start of the war. Two of the sources told Reuters these figures were consistent with internal US data, though Reuters said it had not independently seen the underlying numbers.
According to Reuters, the US has also used a little less than half of its global supply of ship-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles since the war began, a figure the news agency said it could not independently verify. Raytheon, a unit of RTX, has reportedly reached a tentative multi-year agreement with the Pentagon to boost Tomahawk production alongside other munitions, as Washington works to rebuild its stockpiles.
Source: Reuters
