ran War Has Drained U.S. Supplies of Critical, Costly Weapons

THE NEW YORK TIMES: The Pentagon’s rush to rearm its Mideast forces makes it less ready to confront potential adversaries like Russia and China, administration and congressional officials say.

Since the Iran war began in late February, the United States has burned through around 1,100 of its long-range stealth cruise missiles built for a war with China, close to the total number remaining in the U.S. stockpile. The military has fired off more than 1,000 Tomahawk cruise missiles, roughly 10 times the number it currently buys each year.

The Pentagon used more than 1,200 Patriot interceptor missiles in the war, at more than $4 million a pop, and more than 1,000 Precision Strike and ATACMS ground-based missiles, leaving inventories worrisomely low, according to internal Defense Department estimates and congressional officials.

The Iran war has significantly drained much of the U.S. military’s global supply of munitions, and forced the Pentagon to rush bombs, missiles and other hardware to the Middle East from commands in Asia and Europe. The drawdowns have left these regional commands less ready to confront potential adversaries like Russia and China, and it has forced the United States to find ways to scale up production to address the depletions, Trump administration and congressional officials say.

The conflict has also underscored the Pentagon’s overreliance on excessively expensive missiles and munitions, especially air-defense interceptors, as well as concerns about whether the defense industry can develop cheaper arms, especially attack drones, far more quickly. » | Eric Schmitt and Jonathan Swan | Reporting from Washington | Thursday, April 23, 2026

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US Spends £12.5 Billion a Year on Air Con in Iraq and Afghanistan
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The US military spends about $20 billion (£12.5 billion) a year just to air-condition its bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, a retired senior officer has claimed.

Brigadier General Steve Anderson, who served as chief logistician to General David Petraeus in Iraq, said that the American department of defence (DOD) was shockingly inefficient in its energy use.

"In essence what we're doing is we're air conditioning the desert over there in Afghanistan, Iraq and other places," Brig. Gen. Anderson said.

Taking into account raw fuel, transport and security, "DOD will spend about $20 billion annually to air-condition tents and temporary structures," he told National Public Radio. » | Jon Swaine, New York | Tuesday, June 28, 2011