Pentagon Arsenal Depletion Crisis: Rebuilding US Air Defense Stockpiles Will Take Years

Military confrontation with Iran has severely depleted US missile and air defense arsenals, including Patriot and THAAD systems, and restoring this capability will take at least five years, a development that has significantly weakened Washington's global deterrence.

The analysis of the "Asia Times" magazine shows that the military confrontation with Iran has faced a serious evacuation crisis for the missile and defense arsenals of the United States, including the Patriot and THAAD systems, and it will take at least five years to restore this weapon capability; An issue that has severely weakened Washington's global deterrence.

Ambassador Arjan-International Group: The Hong Kong media "Asia Times" in an analysis written by "Azhar Azam", an analyst in the field of geopolitics, emphasized: The American army is in a dire straits in rebuilding its arsenal following its military adventures, and the evidence points to a tangible weakening of Washington's military power. According to this media, it will take years to restore the reserves that were consumed during the war.

According to this report, the shortage of air defense interceptor missiles in the US Army has reached such an extent that the commanders of the American bases in West Asia have preferred to abandon the interception of missiles in order to maintain their limited inventory. Although the Pentagon has signed heavy contracts worth tens of billions of dollars with Raytheon and Lockheed Martin for the production of SM-6, Amram and Patriot missiles, the signing of the contracts cannot quickly return the spent weapons to the field. Although Donald Trump has tried to downplay this issue, in an interview with Time magazine, he has implicitly acknowledged the exhaustion of some reserves.

Estimates by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) show that America's stockpiles of Patriot and THAAD interceptor missiles have decreased to less than 827 and 278, respectively. The US Congressional Budget Office has also estimated that the country's military has consumed between one-half and two-thirds of its inventory of interceptor missiles, and it will take at least five years to make up for it.

According to Asia Times, the production of these missiles is a time-consuming process between 25 and 51 months, and factories and industrial supply chains cannot respond to the high consumption of the battlefield; A fact that has been confirmed in the monitoring reports of the US Department of War.

This arms crisis has directly affected the Ukrainian front as well; Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly complained about the sharp drop in Patriot missiles received. In addition, Washington has announced to its European allies, including Germany, that they should expect delays of up to five years in order to receive weapons such as Tomahawk cruise missiles and defense systems.

In the end, Asia Times, recalling the experience of the 2003 Iraq war, noted that the promises of the leaders of Washington for a quick victory have been repeated. While Trump claimed in his initial calculations that the conflict would end in a few weeks, the long war of attrition has not only depleted America's strategic arsenals, but has also made Washington a weaker and more unreliable ally globally.

US President Donald Trump, who had repeatedly claimed to open the Strait of Hormuz and control it, has reached out to Europe following the increase in fuel prices in the US on the eve of mid-term congressional elections, and claimed to release a huge amount of diesel deposits from them.

Democratic Senator Mark Kelly stated that the American president launched his aggressive and unjustified military attack against Iran without a strategic goal, plan, timetable, and exit strategy, and continued: Donald Trump is trapped in this war.

The Wall Street Journal wrote: Trump has privately told his advisers that he wants to commit to the four-to-six-week timeline he has set for war with Iran, but the problem is that he has no real options for ending the war, and peace talks are in their infancy.