How the Iran War Is Draining the U.S. of Critical Weapons

I went to the Pentagon press conference with one main question in mind. How many bombs and missiles has the United States military used in its campaign against Iran? You can see me sitting with my hand raised, trying to get Defense Secretary Pete Hex's attention. The secretary was answering another question when suddenly he turned and looked directly

at me, and here's what he said.

I would encourage members of the press to think twice about the lives they're affecting when they publish things in their publications like the New York Times.

The reporting from me and my colleague Jonathan Swan show that the United States military has been burning through critical munitions at an incredibly high pace. People in the Pentagon, in the military, and the Congress were willing to talk to us about this, even citing these confidential assessments because they felt it was important to get this information out to the public as well. Since the war started the military has used about 1,100 long-range stealthy cruise missiles

called JASMs. Each block represents about a hundred items. These are missiles that are used to strike long-range targets such as missile silos and airfields inside Iran. After all these strikes there are about 1,500 still remaining. Similarly the military has used more than a thousand Tomahawk cruise missiles which are used to hit everything from enemy radars to missile sites and there are now according to independent estimates as many as 3,000 of those missiles remaining in US

stockpiles. The Pentagon has also used more than 1,200 of the Patriot anti-missile interceptors. These are crucial for defeating Iranian missiles that are fired at American bases and other infrastructure around the Persian Gulf area. Roughly 2,000 remain. The military has also fired more than 1,000 precision strike and ground strike missiles against targets in Iran.

Right now, according to internal Pentagon estimates, the military may only have a few hundred of these left. I spoke to a number of commanders in Europe and Asia who were very concerned if the United States is moving a lot of its interceptors and long range stealthy cruise missiles

that were actually built for a war against China to the Middle East. That leaves American forces more vulnerable to possible attack from foes like Russia and China if the United States' stockpiles are lower than they should be. We reached out to the White House for comment, and this is what Caroline Leavitt, the White

House Press Secretary, said. The United States of America has the most powerful military in the world, fully loaded with more than enough weapons and munitions in stockpiles here at home and all around the globe. We stand by our reporting, are confident the assessments are correct, as the United States has drained much of its munitions at a total cost of nearly a billion dollars a day. And we feel it's in the public interest to know the total costs of this war, whether it's in dollar terms

public interest to know the total costs of this war, whether it's in dollar terms or the amount of munitions that have been used so far in the campaign.