Pentagon in Panic: US Missile Stockpiles Critically Low
War with Iran has drained American arsenals to the point where senior officials warn of weakened deterrence against Russia and China. The White House has launched a hunt for whistleblowers.
War with Iran has drained American arsenals to the point where senior officials warn of weakened deterrence against Russia and China. The White House has launched a hunt for whistleblowers.
Senior officials at the US Department of Defense have taken urgent measures to address a critical shortage of missile stockpiles, resulting from nearly half a year of war with Iran. Deputy Secretary of Defense Steve Feinberg has asked defense industry leaders to submit plans within 21 days for dramatically accelerating production, while President Donald Trump, according to media reports, is furious about the leak of classified information regarding the scale of the crisis.
"Multi-year development cycles are not acceptable. We must dramatically accelerate our program schedules and expand production capacity now," Feinberg said in a memo sent to leading companies on Wednesday, the contents of which were reported by The Washington Post. Meanwhile, Chief of Staff General Dan Caine is reportedly frantically seeking a way out of the conflict, aware that further escalation could have serious consequences.
Media reports about the scale of the problem have caused an uproar in the White House. According to information from The Washington Post, Trump last week vented his anger at Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, demanding answers as to why he had been misled. Anonymous sources claim the president told Hegseth he had believed the ammunition problem was already resolved.
The New York Times, meanwhile, reveals that General Caine had warned Trump about the risks of depleting the arsenal even before the strikes on Iran began, but the president proceeded with the offensive, convinced the war would be short. Now, as the crisis deepens, a sweeping investigation has been launched to uncover who is leaking classified military data. "Anyone who has been granted access to classified military information and passes it on to the media is betraying that trust and violating federal law, and should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
Experts warn that the missile crisis has far-reaching implications for global security. Tom Karako, a senior fellow at the CSIS think tank, told The New York Times: "It's impossible that this won't have a significant impact on the budgets of Russia and China." Both countries are closely monitoring the state of US stockpiles, and the weakening of US deterrence directly affects security calculations from Europe to Asia.
The consequences are felt most drastically in Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelensky warned this week that the number of air defense missiles delivered by Western allies has fallen to just a third of last year's levels. This became painfully evident on August 5, when Russia carried out a devastating attack on Kyiv, killing 17 people, and Ukrainian air defense failed to intercept a single missile. In response to Zelensky's plea for additional shipments, Trump briefly replied on Thursday that the United States also wants missiles.
The long-term consequences could be most severe in Asia, where the US is preparing for a potential Chinese attack on Taiwan. Due to needs in the Middle East, the US military has already relocated significant amounts of weapons and equipment from Asia and Europe, causing concern among allies. Some US officials fear that South Korea and Japan, faced with a weakening US security umbrella, might begin considering developing their own nuclear weapons to create a more credible deterrent.
As the search for a solution continues within the administration, General Caine has shared his concerns with Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, but according to sources, he was less direct in conversations with President Trump. The Pentagon now faces a dual challenge: how to conduct the ongoing conflict while simultaneously rebuilding stockpiles for potential future confrontations.
