The United States doesn’t have the missile stockpile it needs for the Pentagon’s military plans.
The country has only 25 percent of the Patriot missile interceptors left from its initial stockpile level after heavy use of the weapon in the Middle East “in recent months,” reported The Guardian Tuesday. The arsenal issue raised concerns within the Defense Department that U.S. military operations could be jeopardized, with the situation becoming “more acute” in the wake of Donald Trump’s attack on Iranian nuclear facilities last month. The president ordered the use of nearly 30 Patriot missiles in an exchange with Iran’s military.
The U.S. produces some 600 Patriot missiles per year, but concerns remain over Iran’s stockpile, which is believed to contain more than 1,000 ballistic missiles. Those could theoretically be weaponized against U.S. bases if the ceasefire with Israel were to collapse, reported The Guardian. Meanwhile, the U.S. has also divided up its reserves to aid Ukraine while it fights Russia, earmarking dozens of Patriot missiles for the Eastern European nation.
The reported shortage also halted a weapons shipment to Ukraine last week in what a White House spokesperson described as a move to “put America’s interests first,” blindsiding practically everyone outside of the White House, including the State Department, Congress, officials in Kyiv, and America’s European allies, reported NBC News.
The decision to cancel the shipment was grounded in the Pentagon’s global munitions tracker, which highlighted that a number of critical munitions had fallen below a minimum readiness standard for several years, at least since President Joe Biden began sending weapons to assist Ukraine in its war against Russia.
Trump appeared unconcerned by the shortage come Monday, however, when he told reporters ahead of a dinner with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he would “send some more weapons” to Ukraine. He did not, however, disclose whether those shipments would include the Patriot missiles.
Trump also told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that he was “not responsible” for the cancelled shipment, telling the war-battered leader that he had directed a review of U.S. stockpiles but did not order the freeze, according to sources that spoke with The Guardian.
The news of a shortage comes at a pivotal moment, with U.S. officials wavering on the country’s commitments to aiding Ukraine, and Democrats and Republicans alike excoriating the White House’s decision to pull back.
Democratic Representative Adam Smith referred to the decision to halt aid as “disingenuous,” claiming that his office had “seen the numbers” and had not seen any evidence that would warrant peeling back support from Ukraine.
“We are not at any lower point, stockpile-wise, than we’ve been in the three and a half years of the Ukraine conflict,” Smith, the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, told NBC News.
Last week, after news of the halted shipment broke, an analysis by senior military officers similarly found that a Ukraine aid package would not jeopardize U.S. supplies, reported NBC.
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