Symbolic imagePentagon awards over $120bn for missiles and submarines as interceptor stocks fall
The Pentagon has committed more than $120 billion in contracts for missile systems and submarines, including a $59 billion award to Lockheed Martin for Patriot missiles. The awards come as a report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies puts remaining US Patriot and THAAD interceptors at fewer than 1,000, down from more than 2,700 before the war with Iran. The Pentagon says its stocks are sufficient and that procurement of new missiles continues.
Iran United StatesCenter for Strategic and International StudiesLockheed Martin CorporationUnited States Department of Defense
What happened
The Pentagon committed more than $120 billion in contracts for missile systems and submarines, the Wall Street Journal reports, with Bloomberg naming a $59 billion deal for Lockheed Martin to build Patriot missiles and linking the awards to the strains of the Iran war. A report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), carried by the New York Post and relayed by Politika, states that the United States held more than 2,700 Patriot and THAAD interceptors before the war and fewer than 1,000 as of Monday, of them between 759 and 827 Patriot rounds. THAAD stocks fell from 452 before the war to between 232 and 262 at the start of the April truce and, after partial replenishment, remain 38 percent below pre-war levels. According to the report, US forces expended a large share of the interceptors during the first six days of Operation Epic Rage while destroying Iranian launchers, and stocks were already below normal because of earlier missile deliveries to Ukraine. Analysts cited in the report describe the success rate of US missile defence as almost complete, while noting that several Iranian projectiles got through, including at least three that hit the Muwaffaq Salti air base in Jordan earlier this month and killed three US soldiers. The Pentagon has repeatedly rejected concerns about depleted stocks.
The view from outside
The Serbian state-affiliated daily Politika leads with the shortage rather than the money, headlining a warning that Washington has fewer than 1,000 interceptors left. It highlights the CSIS assessment that no adequate substitute for Patriot and THAAD currently exists for ballistic missile defence.
What could happen next
The contracts turn the depletion into long-term order books for US defence manufacturers, while the interceptors themselves take years to build. The CSIS report warns that a continuation of the conflict could affect the ability of the United States to defend its bases in the Middle East and its readiness for a possible confrontation with China in the western Pacific. The Pentagon says procurement of new missiles is proceeding, so the open questions are delivery schedules and whether further awards follow. Reported stock figures remain a matter of dispute between the Pentagon and the analysts.