The US Army has used up much of its stockpile of highly accurate long-range missiles during its five-month war with Iran, according to a report.
The missiles are principally the Army's surface-to-surface weapons, known as Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) and Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM).
The US has used "virtually all" of these weapons, Reuters reported, quoting sources familiar with the matter.
The extent to which the military is running out of ATACMS and Precision Strike Missiles has not been reported previously.
The long-range munitions, which cost more than $1 million each, are an important part of the military's arsenal, allowing accurate strikes from a safe distance.
US-supplied ATACMS have played a key role in the war in Ukraine, allowing Ukrainian forces to attack targets inside Russia.
The PrSM is a newer, more advanced generation that will replace the ATACMS, which have a shorter range.
Insufficient supplies
The dramatic rundown in precision, long-range missiles means US President Donald Trump may have to rely more on riskier, piloted bombing missions if he relaunches large-scale attacks on Iran.
Falling missile supplies could limit the US ability to deter adversaries, including Russia and China.
US CENTCOM has reportedly nearly used up the land-based missiles it had before the war began; it has been able to reload from US military supplies elsewhere in the world.
The White House stated the US had “far more munitions than anyone in the world" and "far more than we need."
"Our defence companies are, at this moment, making more munitions than they have ever made before, in addition to expanding their plants and equipment at record levels," Trump said.
Low production
Analysts agree that certain munitions, including artillery shells and several types of missiles, are being produced at record levels but caution that supplies might fall short of what is needed for a prolonged war.
“America’s military is the most powerful in the world and has everything it needs to execute at the time and place of the President’s choosing. We have executed multiple successful operations across combatant commands while ensuring the US military possesses a deep arsenal of capabilities to protect our people and our interests,” Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell told Reuters.
The supply figures have circulated inside the federal government over the last week during tense conversations inside the Trump administration about how much longer the US can continue striking Iran without drawing down the stockpile to levels that would limit the military's ability to respond to crises elsewhere, Reuters reported.
The drawdown of the ATACMS and PrSM stockpiles reflected a decision by the Trump administration to avoid riskier ways of attacking Iranian targets, such as by using piloted aircraft to drop bombs.
Because these weapons allow the military to attack targets from a distance, analysts say they would be valuable in a war against an adversary with strong air defences.
They have been used to strike targets inside Iran, according to a March report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
According to the report, PrSM stockpiles were low to start with, since it is a relatively new munition, but the US military has ordered a large number of them for 2027. The Army has said that ATACMS are being phased out and that production is shifting to the newer PrSM missiles.
Last week, several media outlets reported Trump had decided not to launch another massive offensive inside Iran in part because his military advisers had warned about the US stockpile.
A US official disputed those accounts, saying Trump chose not to move forward with another attack because of pressure from Gulf states.
US low on interceptors as well
Last week, CSIS published a report estimating that between February and July about 65 percent of Patriot interceptors had been expended and that the number of THAAD ballistic missile interceptors in US stockpiles was at least 38 percent lower than at the start of the war. Patriots and THAADs are systems that detect and destroy incoming missiles and are among the most effective in the country's arsenal.
The US also burnt through a little less than half of its global supply of Tomahawk cruise missiles, which are generally launched from ships, since the start of the war.
The Tomahawk is a navy weapon, launched from destroyers, cruisers and submarines, and has long served as the sea service's principal means of striking heavily defended targets without risking pilots.
Raytheon, a unit of RTX, has reached a tentative multi-year agreement with the Pentagon to boost Tomahawk production, along with increases in other munitions, as Washington races to rebuild stockpiles.
