US Army Depletes 80% of Key Missile Defense Interceptors
The U.S. military has depleted nearly 80 percent of its THAAD missile interceptors and about half its Patriot stockpile during ongoing operations against Iran, raising urgent readiness concerns.
Senior Pentagon officials have issued stark warnings that the Defense Department’s munitions reserves have reached dangerously low levels, with air defence systems bearing the brunt of the depletion during the conflict with Iran, the outlet reports citing multiple sources with knowledge of the matter.
The drawdown of American military assets is particularly severe for the THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) system, where nearly four-fifths of the missile inventory has been consumed compared to pre-war levels. The situation is similarly concerning for Patriot missile interceptors, with approximately half of the stockpile expended since hostilities began.
Pentagon sources familiar with recent internal assessments revealed that the army has utilized virtually all of its highly accurate long-range, surface-to-air weapons during the same timeframe.
The massive depletion of American air defence munitions raises questions about the sustainability of current military operations and the nation’s capacity to respond to additional threats or conflicts. The THAAD and Patriot systems represent cornerstone elements of U.S. missile defence architecture, designed to intercept incoming ballistic missiles at different altitudes.
The revelations come as the Pentagon faces mounting pressure to maintain military readiness across multiple theaters while managing constrained defence industrial production capacity.
With information from Middle East Eye
