The recent 12-day conflict between Israel and Iran in June revealed an alarming shortage of missile interceptors in US arsenals and raised questions about the effectiveness of some anti-missile defense systems. According to The Wall Street Journal, citing Pentagon officials, the war highlighted a gap in US reserves and the need to re-evaluate the performance of interceptors.
Pentagon officials expressed concern that current US missile defense is not up to contemporary challenges, especially given the widespread use of cheap ballistic missiles worldwide. During the conflict, operators of US Thaad anti-aircraft complexes reportedly used over 150 missiles, which is about a quarter of all interceptors ever acquired by the Pentagon. Experts indicate that replenishing these stocks could take more than a year.
The high demand for missiles during the conflict led the Pentagon to consider redirecting interceptors originally purchased by Saudi Arabia to Israel. Furthermore, there are suspicions that SM-3 anti-missiles, launched from ships, did not destroy the expected number of targets.
