The Pentagon fired $200 million worth of interceptors in a single day, but Iranian forces managed to break through on the fifth day. The attacks reveal serious flaws in the US assessment of Iran's capabilities.
During July 2026, Iranian forces bombarded three US military bases in Jordan for five consecutive days, using drones and ballistic missiles in an attempt to breach US air defenses. According to a New York Times report, on the fifth day of the attacks, the Iranians succeeded, resulting in the deaths of three American soldiers and injuries to more than a hundred.
The attacks were primarily directed at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Azraq, a Jordanian military installation increasingly used by the US Air Force as a main hub for dozens of aircraft and several thousand troops. During the breach of air defenses, Iranian forces used missiles capable of sudden trajectory changes, a tactic they reportedly adopted from Russian forces.
Two US officials revealed that American forces fired approximately 50 Patriot PAC-3 interceptors in just one day during that deadly week. Each interceptor costs about four million dollars, meaning that within 24 hours, weapons worth a total of $200 million were launched. This intense expenditure of interceptors further strained already limited US stockpiles.
The key strike occurred on July 17, 2026, when an Iranian missile hit modular housing units at one of the bases. The attack killed three American soldiers, wounded more than a hundred, and damaged several aircraft. This incident represents the deadliest Iranian attack on US forces in Jordan since the start of the conflict.
As early as April 8, 2026, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told reporters that Iran's missile program was "functionally destroyed", describing Iranian launchers and missiles as "exhausted, decimated, and almost completely ineffective". The July attacks showed that assessment was far from reality.
Most of Iran's missiles and launchers were stored in vast underground facilities that US and Israeli forces bombed heavily during the first five weeks of the war. However, Iran managed to dig out many of these sites and continue firing. The consequences were also felt in the Strait of Hormuz, where shipping has come to a near standstill, threatening global trade routes.
Vali Nasr, a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, said that President Donald Trump and his national security advisers assumed the fighting would be short and would not deplete the Patriot interceptor stockpiles available to the Pentagon. But according to Nasr and other Iran experts, Tehran has been waiting for this moment since the conflict began more than five months ago.
During the 12-day war in June 2025, Iranian leaders saw firsthand how quickly Israeli and US forces could use interceptors to shoot down ballistic missiles and down salvos of Iranian drones and projectiles. That experience was evidently used to develop new tactics that have now proven successful.
The Pentagon continues to face a significant threat, months after major combat operations officially ended in early April 2026, indicating that the Middle East conflict is entering a new, potentially longer-lasting phase.
