Did Trump fire too many missiles at Iran? | About That

Did Donald Trump fire too many missiles at Iran?I mean, when it comes to certain types, he said, we have a virtually unlimited supply of these weapons.Wars can be fought forever.But no, no, they can't.Because the way the U .S.

fights wars is to go hard and fast with the fanciest, most complex weapons.

The United States strategy in warfare has been less a war of attrition and one of shock and awe.

Take this tomahawk, for example.Long range, stealthy, flies low to avoid enemy radar.You know what just one of these costs?$2 .6 million.Before the start of the war on Iran, the U .S.

was estimated to have about 3 ,100 of them.That's about $8 billion in Tomahawk missiles.But in the first month and a half of the war, the U .S.is now estimated to have launched at least 1 ,000 of them.That's a third of their stock, $2 .6 billion worth of just this one type of munition.

CNN has learned that the U .S.military has significantly depleted its stockpile of key missiles during the war with Iran.

Look at missile defense, Patriot, Interceptors, $4 million a shot.The U .S.has gone through about half of its supply of 2 ,000.fad ballistic interceptors.The U .

S.was thought to have hundreds of these at $15 million a shot.

They may now only have dozens left after fending off Iran for two months.That war has consumed large amounts of precision munitions.We're shooting bullets and missiles at a rate that exceeds our ability to produce them.

And that's the killer here.The U .S.isn't so worried right now about Iran's ability to fight back.But rebuilding weapons takes years because You can't just go to the missile store and sweep a bunch of interceptors into your shopping cart and go to the self -checkout.The people who make these weapons scale down during peacetime, they aren't building on spec.

They're building based on orders.So war breaks out.They get the call.Now they need a workforce.They need to train that workforce, sort out contracts, logistics.and spool up production lines and supply chains.

There is a realistic limit to how quickly these lines can pump out replacement missiles.It is a question of personnel and training and material.

Now, this is fine, except what experts are warning about is that during this process of rebuilding, what if a peer adversary like China tries to exploit U .S.

weakness.in the Western Pacific because of inventory depletion.China's been very clear that they intend to reunify Taiwan, but when and how has been a debate.

So China stretches out while the U .S.is stretched thin.It's not a certainty, but the U .S.is certainly less menacing when it's got half the weapons it normally does.

That means even when the war on Iran ends, the U .S.will be feeling it for years.