U.S. Weapons Shortages Exposed by Iran War, With Missile Stocks Under Pressure

The war with Iran has exposed shortages in the U.S. military's stockpiles of advanced missiles and other precision weapons, raising questions about how quickly American defense contractors can replenish supplies.

The conflict has highlighted limited inventories of high-end precision weapons and insufficient capacity to rapidly expand production during a prolonged conflict. [Photo: Ralph Scott/Missile Defense Agency/U.S. Department of Defense]

At Lockheed Martin's production facility in Camden, Arkansas, Tim Cahill, head of the company's missile division, showed CBS News correspondent David Martin the latest version of the Patriot air-defense missile.

The Patriot is designed to intercept incoming ballistic missiles through direct impact — a classic “bullet hitting a bullet” scenario.

“It's going to vaporize pretty much whatever it hits,” Cahill said.

Each Patriot interceptor costs about $4 million. Lockheed Martin is currently producing roughly 750 a year, while an estimated 1,500 were fired during the war with Iran, according to CBS News.

Mark Cancian of the Center for Strategic and International Studies has estimated the expenditure of Patriot interceptors and six other critical U.S. weapons used against Iran, including Tomahawk missiles, Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptors and Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM).

Cancian estimates that the cost of the munitions fired against Iran is approximately $25 billion.

“If they fire a ballistic missile, we have to use one of our high-end systems to defend,” Cancian said.

The conflict has highlighted a broader problem for the U.S. military: limited inventories of high-end precision weapons and insufficient capacity to rapidly expand production during a prolonged conflict.

Cancian said the war in Ukraine served as a warning that the United States did not have adequate inventories or enough surge capacity to sustain a lengthy, high-intensity conflict.

The U.S. military's stockpiles came under further pressure during the Iran war.

According to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, U.S. forces had struck more than 13,000 targets by April 8. That figure refers to targets struck — not 13,000 missiles fired.

The shortage is particularly significant because advanced interceptors and precision-strike weapons can take months or years to produce at scale.

Replenishing inventories therefore depends not only on congressional funding but also on expanding manufacturing capacity and securing the necessary components.