After a five-month war with Iran, the U.S. military faces an alarming depletion of precision missile stockpiles, while simultaneously planning to introduce laser weapons as a permanent part of its arsenal to counter drones.
The U.S. military has expended a large portion of its stockpiles of the most powerful long-range precision missiles during the five-month war with Iran, raising serious concerns at the Pentagon about readiness for future conflicts. At the same time, according to Wired, the Pentagon is on the verge of signing a historic contract that would make laser weapons an official part of the U.S. military arsenal for the first time.
The war with Iran, launched by President Donald Trump in February 2026 alongside Israel, exposed the vulnerability of a modern military to cheap threats. As reported by Kurir.rs, citing three sources familiar with the data, the United States has used up "nearly all" of its stockpiles of ATACMS and Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) missiles, each costing over a million dollars.
The problem is further illustrated by the fact that firing Patriot missiles worth $4 million at Iranian drones costing $35,000 led to a massive drawdown of stockpiles. According to a CSIS report, between February and July, about 65 percent of U.S. Patriot interceptors were expended, while THAAD missile stockpiles were reduced by at least 38 percent compared to the start of the war. One source also claims that the U.S. used just under half of the global stockpile of Tomahawk cruise missiles.
The consequences of depleted stockpiles became tragically clear on March 1, 2026, when an Iranian drone killed six U.S. soldiers and wounded 30 others. To replenish stockpiles, the Pentagon reached a preliminary multi-year agreement with Lockheed Martin and Raytheon (part of RTX Corporation) to increase production of Tomahawk missiles and other munitions.
It is precisely this economic and logistical unsustainability of intercepting drones with expensive missiles that has accelerated the development of laser weapons. In late June 2026, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth visited the White Sands military range in New Mexico to witness demonstrations of directed energy weapon projects. "For years, lasers were supposed to be the future, but they never took off. Now they are really coming into their own," Mark J. Lewis, former chief scientist of the U.S. Air Force, told Wired.
The advantage of lasers is unlimited "ammunition." "Basically, you can fire them as long as you have electricity," Lewis explained. "There are other issues with lasers, including how quickly you can re-fire and recharge them. But if you solve those problems, you suddenly have a pretty handy way to counter things like drone swarm attacks."
According to Wired sources, the U.S. Army is ready to sign a contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars with defense contractor AeroVironment for the procurement of up to 20 Enduring High Energy Laser (E-HEL) systems. These lasers are expected to be compact enough to fit in a 4 x 7-foot container or on a tactical vehicle, yet powerful enough to destroy one-way attack drones like Iran's Shahed-136.
Lieutenant General Frank Lozano stated that the system has shown "a lot of near-term promise and capability at White Sands," adding that the Army is currently negotiating a contract with AeroVironment for E-HEL. The key development is that the laser will become an operational "program of record," a military designation indicating that the technology has been officially accepted and included in the Pentagon's five-year budget. "A program of record indicates a broader cultural acceptance of new technology as a military capability," Craig Robin, who led the directed energy portfolio in the Army's Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office, told Wired.
President Trump himself is enthusiastic about the new technology. "The laser technology we have now is incredible," he told reporters at his Doral club in Florida. "It's coming soon, where literally lasers will do the job-at a much lower cost-do the job of what the Patriot systems do."
Despite the optimism, lasers have their limitations. According to Wired sources, they cannot be used in rain or fog, must be fired at one target at a time, and require several seconds per target. Lasers, especially the powerful ones being developed, continue even into orbit-"They just don't stop," said Scott Keeney, CEO of nLight, which supplies lasers to companies like AeroVironment.
The development of lasers has not been without incidents. In February 2026, an AeroVironment laser stationed on the U.S. southern border accidentally hit a party balloon, prompting the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to briefly close the airspace around El Paso, Texas. Later, the same laser mistakenly shot down a Border Patrol drone. Ironically, that unfortunate incident proved that the laser can effectively destroy a drone.
As the military turns to lasers, depleted missile stockpiles raise concerns about the U.S. ability to deter adversaries like Russia and China. According to a March 2026 report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), PrSM missiles were also used for strikes on targets in Iran, and stockpiles were limited from the start because it is a new system.
The Pentagon is concerned, but official rhetoric remains optimistic. "The United States has far more ammunition than any other country in the world and much more than we need," Trump said in a White House statement. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell added that "the U.S. military is the most powerful in the world and has everything it needs to carry out its missions."
Still, one source anonymously told Reuters that the high expenditure of missiles was due to the Trump administration's decision to avoid riskier airstrikes with manned aircraft. There are also conflicting accounts of why Trump abandoned a new major strike on Iran-one U.S. official claims the reason was pressure from Gulf states, not depleted stockpiles.
