The Pentagon has made significant use of its precision weapons stockpile and is “draining” its inventory less than a week after the outbreak of war with Iran, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday. The U.S. military has so far used sophisticated air defense missiles at a pace that could force it within “days” to prioritize which targets to intercept, three sources described as familiar with the matter told the newspaper.
According to Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Central Command, more than 2,000 Iranian targets have been struck since the start of the operation. The scale of the campaign is forcing the Pentagon to calculate how much ammunition remains relative to the Iranian threat, as President Donald Trump has said the war could last four or five weeks. Senior Pentagon officials have been asked to address concerns that the military is “burning through” munitions.
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US President Donald Trump and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine
(Photo: Jonathan Ernst,Photo, Jim Watson/AFP, Sonny Escalante / US Navy / AFP)
“We have enough precision munitions for the current mission, both offensively and defensively,” said Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine. He explained that in recent days, in his view, Iran’s defenses will continue to weaken — allowing the U.S. to rely on larger stockpiles of less advanced weaponry, and enabling its forces to approach targets more closely rather than striking them from a distance with more sophisticated arms.
Four sources familiar with Pentagon assessments told the Post that the U.S. military has so far used hundreds of its most advanced missiles against Iran — including Patriot and THAAD interception systems, considered among the best air defense systems in the world, and Tomahawk cruise missiles launched in strikes against Iranian leaders and ballistic missile sites.
On Monday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said “the hardest blows of the U.S. military have yet to come.” The same day, Trump said U.S. stockpiles of “mid-level and mid-to-high-level” munitions are “essentially unlimited,” allowing strikes in Iran to continue indefinitely. Trump also asserted that the U.S. military has enough “top-tier” weapons, though he added that the quantity is not ideal. “It’s not where we’d like it to be,” the president said.
A Pentagon spokesman said Tuesday that the U.S. military “has everything it needs to conduct any mission, anytime, anywhere the president chooses, and on any timeline.” A U.S. official said the rate of use of the military’s most sophisticated munitions has declined since the first day of the war, when Iran launched many of its advanced weapons. The official said the pace has not dropped “dramatically.”
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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth addresses issue at Pentagon briefing
(Photo: Brendan Smialowski / AFP)
In recent days, Israel and the United States have achieved air superiority, allowing fighter jets to fly closer to targets and use “cheaper” munitions such as precision-guided bombs. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Pentagon will increasingly rely on smart bombs, “whose stockpile is nearly unlimited,” and that the military “will no longer need” to draw as heavily on its more sophisticated weapons inventory. “Iran will not be able to outlast us,” Trump’s defense secretary said.
First published: 20:50, 03.04.26