NYT: US faces critical shortage of missiles, ammunition after Middle East conflict

The United States will have to make “tough choices” about where to prioritise its military capabilities following a shortage of ammunition triggered by the conflict in the Middle East, The New York Times (NYT) reports.

According to the newspaper, the depletion of key stockpiles has exposed vulnerabilities in critical categories of munitions, particularly those used for ground strikes and missile defence systems.

“The United States has many munitions with adequate inventories, but some critical ground-attack and missile-defense munitions were short before the war and are even shorter now,” said Mark F. Cancian, a retired Marine Corps colonel and a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington-based think tank.

The NYT notes that shortages of air defence ammunition could affect the combat readiness of US forces in Asia, where military planning has increasingly focused on potential contingencies involving China.

Earlier, The Wall Street Journal reported that the United States has used more than 1,000 long-range Tomahawk missiles during the war with Iran, as well as between 1,500 and 2,000 critical missile interceptors for air defence systems, including THAAD and Patriot. According to the publication, replenishing these stockpiles could take up to six years.