WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday dismissed reports of the US military being low on munitions amid the war with Iran, saying his administration is determining who leaked the information to news outlets.“The US has massive amounts of ‘munitions,’ especially of certain types,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Additionally, large amounts are being manufactured and shipped to the US as needed.”The White House and Pentagon have pushed back on a slate of recent reports indicating that supplies of both offensive and defensive weapons have dropped dangerously low after five months of war on Iran.Trump’s frustration over the Iran war boiled over at Camp David last week, where he demanded answers from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on why he had apparently been misled on extreme munitions shortages that now threaten to limit military options with Iran, The Washington Post reported citing two people familiar with the exchange.When confronted about the problem, Hegseth punted the blame to his deputy, Stephen Feinberg, the Post report said.CNN reported that the US military had depleted 80 percent of the THAAD interceptors it had prior to the war and about half of its Patriot interceptors. Sources described the levels as “dangerously low”.Hegseth swiftly contested the 80 percent figure and the characterization of the threat it posed, posting “not true” on X on Monday.White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt denied the story completely, telling the Post it was: “100% fake news. Literally never happened. And President Trump has the utmost confidence in Secretary Hegseth.”Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said: “Secretary Hegseth did not mislead anyone about our munitions posture, and he did not blame Deputy Secretary Feinberg.”Experts have said that low supplies of air defense interceptors, particularly those used in Patriot and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) air defence systems, may pose a particular threat to US forces, with knock-on effects for allies in the region and beyond.Trump pointed to new efforts to scale up weapons production, although experts have questioned whether supplies of air defense missiles could indeed be scaled up in a timely fashion.“And as we build up, we will start issuing more to our allies in Europe and elsewhere,” Trump said.The Pentagon spokesman also maintained that the US was not in dire straits on the issue.“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,” Parnell said in a statement.Several reports indicated that the situation may be more pronounced than US officials have publicly said.In an analysis published by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) on July 27, the think tank calculated that, as of that date, the military had just more than a third of its Patriot interceptors left and about half of its THAAD interceptors.CSIS has assessed that it would take at least three years, even with a recent flurry of funding, to bring supplies to pre-war levels.The Reuters news agency and CBS News separately reported that the military has used the majority of its Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) and Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM).Unlike the Patriot and THAAD interceptors, the highly accurate long-range missiles are used in offensive attacks. Two sources told Reuters that “virtually all” the missiles, which cost about $1m each, had been used.No Trump administration official has publicly acknowledged any threats posed by munition shortages, despite the fact the administration has requested $95 billion in its Fiscal Year 2027 defense budget and $21 billion in a supplemental funding request to replenish its stores.Multiple media reports have indicated that Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has repeatedly raised concerns behind closed doors. The New York Times reported in late July that concerns over weapons supplies were at least one factor in Trump’s decision to back away from greater escalation.Experts say shortages in both offensive and defensive weapons could leave US forces less secure.Shortages of offensive ATACMs and PrSM degrade the army’s ability to launch strikes from afar, requiring closer-range attacks that are more likely to put forces in peril, according to Mark Cancian, a retired US Marine Corps colonel and senior adviser with CSIS.“For ATACMS and PrSM, if you run low or out, then you would have to use some other mechanism, and that would be air-delivered or sea-delivered, so you’re talking probably Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles (JASSM) or Tomahawk to strike a deep target, or having aircraft fly over enemy territory,” Cancian said.“It’s more dangerous, and you really have to beat down any air defense system,” he added.The shortages of air defense interceptors, however, are “much more serious”, Cancian said.“When we talk about missile defense… we don’t have that many left, and there are no good substitutes,” Cancian said. “If we run out of Patriots, then the missiles get through.”Such concerns were underscored by a July 17 attack on the Muwaffaq Salti airbase in Jordan, in which three US soldiers were killed when Iranian missiles were able to slip through US military and Jordanian air defence systems.To be sure, after five months of war, Iran’s military capabilities remain unclear, but it is unlikely Tehran would be able to fully exhaust remaining US interceptors in the short term, Cancian assessed.However, with the current level of US stockpiles, every interception of an Iranian strike weakens US deterrence capabilities against military powers like China.“Every missile that’s used is one fewer that’s available to deter China”, Cancian said, “and we are now at a point where the joint staff are really very nervous about that”.Meanwhile, US media reported that the military has already taken a more judicious approach to intercepting Iranian attacks deemed unlikely to cause major harm. The strategy can help to preserve interceptors, but can also increase the chances of miscalculation.
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