Posted on 04/30/2026 7:01:51 PM PDT by daniel1212
The United States has burned through thousands of missiles since the Iran war began on Feb. 28, diminishing the armaments needed in a potential future conflict with China tied to its tensions with Taiwan.
The U.S. military has used 1,100 long-range stealth cruise missiles — nearly all of the total number left in Washington’s stockpile — and fired off more than 1,000 Tomahawk cruise missiles, The New York Times reported. The U.S. only produces roughly 100 Tomahawks a year, meaning under current production, it could take 10 years to replace.
In addition, in less than eight weeks American forces have spent more than 1,200 Patriot interceptor missiles, one of the most expensive individual armaments at more than $4 million each. Another 1,000 Precision Strike and ATACMS ground-based missiles also have been fired, officials told the Times.
The sheer rate of missile use has left U.S. stockpiles low, multiple outlets have reported.
U.S. Indo-Pacific Command head Adm. Samuel Paparo on Tuesday told Senate Armed Services Committee lawmakers that it could take years to ramp up the building of such sophisticated munitions.
“I think it will take one to two years for them to scale,” Paparo said, adding that “it won’t be soon enough.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
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May also give China pause, their weapons didn’t fare very well
Crossing 100 miles of ocean and supplying anything that makes it is difficult, not to mention a destroyed Taiwan does little to help China, and their economy
These are the consequences of devoting $100b a year on the GWOT, cash that could have been spent on munitions. Ideally, post-9/11 retribution should have been focused on wiping out the 100K closest kin and friends of bin Laden and the Taliban high command, putting a price on their heads, to be claimed by delivering heads for DNA verification. Alas, our sensibilities are such that we need the fig leaf of nation-building to kill our enemies.
This is readily fixed with more defense appropriations, but our excessive solicitude for the lives of enemy civilians is an expensive affectation. Those billions could be put to much better use, such as Somali Learing Centers.
Also, in case you missed it: “US weapons burn rate in Iran undermines plans to defend Taiwan: Reports”.
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