The United States Defense Department may be understating the severity of America’s missile stockpile shortage amid the Iran war, The Atlantic reported on Monday.
The report cited two unnamed senior officials as saying that US Vice President JD Vance has been questioning the accuracy of the department’s reports on the matter and on the war in general.
According to The Atlantic, Vance has discussed the issue with US President Donald Trump, expressing his concerns to the President without directly accusing Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth or Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine of intentionally misleading Trump.
Both Hegseth and Caine have stressed that US stockpiles remain high while emphasizing the damage sustained by Iran during the war.
The Atlantic reported that a US weapons shortage would be extremely detrimental to American interests, given that the stockpile would be needed to defend the country’s allies against their respective adversaries.
An April 22 CNN report stated that the US military may face a shortage of key missiles in the “near-term” following a significant depletion of its stockpile during the Iran war, citing experts and individuals familiar with recent Defense Department assessments.
The report cited an analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), which said it may take three to five years to fully replenish the stockpile to pre-war levels, despite recent moves by the Pentagon to expand missile production.
According to the CSIS analysis, the US military has used up at least half of its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missiles, almost half of its Patriot missiles, and at least 45% of its Precision Strike missiles since the begining of Operation Epic Fury.
In addition, around 30% of Tomahawk missiles and around 20% of SM-3 and SM-6 missiles were expended, according to the CSIS and CNN’s sources, who stated that CSIS’s numbers closely match the Pentagon’s ammunition stockpile data.
Goldie Katz contributed to this report.
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