US has nearly exhausted long-range precision missiles in Iran war

The United States has burned through more than half its stockpiles of key long-range precision munitions since Operation Epic Fury launched against Iran in late February, according to estimates from the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The rate of consumption has outpaced production by an almost comical margin, with over 1,000 Tomahawk cruise missiles fired in just months, a figure roughly ten times the annual production rate. The numbers are stark CSIS estimates that over 50% of US stockpiles across at least four of seven heavily used munition types have been expended. That includes Tomahawk missiles, Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles (JASSM), Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM), and critical air defense interceptors. The Patriot missile system, America’s workhorse for ballistic missile defense, has taken the hardest hit. Pre-war inventory sat at roughly 2,200 modern Patriot interceptors. That number has cratered to somewhere between 827 and 1,000, a depletion of approximately 65%. THAAD interceptors, the higher-altitude complement to Patriot, have fared somewhat better but still dropped by about 38%. The pre-conflict stockpile of an estimated 452 interceptors has...