The US military has burned through a significant share of its precision munitions stockpile during its war with Iran, and fully restocking those supplies could take up to six years, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing US officials who declined to give exact figures.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies published an updated analysis on the same day, warning that current inventory levels “will constrain US operations should a future conflict arise.”
Since Operation Epic Fury began on February 28, the US military fired more than 1,000 long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles and between 1,500 and 2,000 air-defense interceptors, per the WSJ. US forces struck more than 13,000 targets over 39 days of combat, with high-end munitions concentrated heavily in the early phase before Iran’s air defenses were degraded.
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CSIS analysis put specific numbers to the drain: the war burned through more than half the US THAAD interceptor inventory, roughly 50% of Patriot missiles, and at least 45% of Precision Strike Missiles. Returning those stockpiles to pre-war levels would take one to four years — and pushing beyond pre-war levels would take considerably longer.
CSIS analyst Mark Cancian, a retired Marine Corps colonel, told CNN that “the high munitions expenditures have created a window of increased vulnerability in the western Pacific. It will take one to four years to replenish these inventories and several years after that to expand them to where they need to be.”
The White House and Pentagon pushed back. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the report false. “The entire premise of this story is false,” she said, insisting the military has sufficient weapons to handle any operation ordered by the president.
Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the military “has everything it needs to execute at the time and place of the President’s choosing,” adding that the US had executed “multiple successful operations across combatant commands” since Trump took office.
The Pentagon said it is pushing defense contractors to ramp up production. Trump’s FY2027 defense budget request totals $1.5 trillion — a 42% increase from 2026 — with munitions procurement accounts rising by roughly $47 billion, much of it directed at restocking systems depleted in Iran.
RTX has announced it will increase annual Tomahawk production to more than 1,000 units, and Lockheed Martin is targeting a jump in THAAD interceptor production from 96 units annually to 400, under framework agreements with the Trump administration.
Japan, meanwhile, was told its delivery of 400 ordered Tomahawk missiles may be delayed due to Iran war production pressures — a setback for Tokyo’s push to build independent long-range strike capability.
CSIS noted that the Trump administration appears to be operating on the theory that winning the current war decisively outweighs preserving capability for future conflicts. “Restoring depleted stockpiles and then achieving the desired inventory levels will take many years,” the report’s authors wrote.
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