During Operation Epic Fury, the U.S. military expended more missiles defending Israel than Israeli forces expended, The Washington Post reported Thursday.
The U.S. military fired more than 200 THAAD interceptors defending Israel during Operation Epic Fury, roughly half of the Pentagon’s total inventory, The Post reported, citing Defense Department assessments and U.S. officials granted anonymity to discuss national security matters. U.S. naval vessels in the eastern Mediterranean also fired more than 100 SM-3 and SM-6 interceptors, according to the outlet.
Israel fired fewer than 100 Arrow interceptors and about 90 David’s Sling interceptors, the Post reported. One U.S. government official told the outlet that the U.S. fired roughly 120 more interceptors than Israel and engaged twice as many Iranian missiles.
“We do not discuss munitions for operational security reasons,” a Department of War official told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “It would be inappropriate for us to speculate on hypothetical future situations.”
“Israel is not capable of fighting and winning wars on its own, but nobody actually knows this, because they never see the back end,” the Post reported, citing a U.S. government official.
The reported imbalance puts fresh scrutiny on the cost of defending Israel during the Iran war, particularly as President Donald Trump weighs whether to resume hostilities with Tehran.
“I have instructed Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, The Chairman of The Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Daniel Caine, and The United States Military, that we will NOT be doing the scheduled attack of Iran tomorrow, but have further instructed them to be prepared to go forward with a full, large scale assault of Iran, on a moment’s notice, in the event that an acceptable Deal is not reached,” Trump said in a Truth Social post on Monday.
“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,” Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell told the DCNF. “We have executed multiple successful operations across combatant commands while ensuring the U.S. military possesses a deep arsenal of capabilities to protect our people and our interests.”
Parnell defended the munitions expenditure, saying the overall burden was equal between the U.S. military and the Israel Defense Forces.
“Ballistic missile interceptors are just one tool in a vast network of systems and capabilities that comprise a layered and integrated air defense network,” Parnell told the DCNF. “Both Israel and the United States carried the defensive burden equitably during Operation Epic Fury, which saw both countries employ fighter aircraft, counter-UAS systems, and various other advanced air and missile defense capabilities with maximal effectiveness.”
The White House and the Israeli Embassy in Washington did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Rapid Burn
Since the Iran war began, the U.S. military has used somewhere between 45% and 61% of its Patriot missiles, according to a Center for Strategic and International Studies report. Between 1,060 and 1,430 of the 2,330 Patriot missiles in the stockpile have been expended.
The depletion of missile stockpiles is not only a problem for the Middle East. U.S. treaty allies Japan and South Korea rely on American missile defense systems and interceptors to counter missile threats from China and North Korea.
The issue could become more severe if the war restarts. The Post reported that Israel recently took some missile defense batteries offline for maintenance, which could force the U.S. to carry an even larger share of the missile defense mission if Iran resumes major missile attacks.
The stockpile depletion of U.S. missile and interceptor inventories is here to stay. It could take more than five years to replenish key munition stockpiles, according to the CSIS report, citing Department of War defense budget materials.
Former congressional staffer and geopolitical analyst Brandon Weichert previously told the DCNF that these munitions will be hard to replace once expended.
“The biggest problem is that once they’re gone, once they’re out of the INDOPACOM area of responsibility … we don’t get replacements because the defense industrial base is so sclerotic that it will take, if we stop the war tomorrow, around four or more years to replenish all of those systems that we have depleted,” Weichert said.
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