Tuesday, 11 August 2026, 9:22
Five months into the war with Iran, new reports are raising alarms about depleted U.S. military munitions stockpiles. CBS News reports President Trump is pushing back against those claims, but the Pentagon is also asking Congress for billions in emergency funds.
Reuters first reported that the U.S. Army has gone through almost all of its surface-to-surface Army Tactical Missile Systems and Precision Strike Missiles, according to people familiar with inventory data. These weapons allow troops to hit targets accurately from a safe distance.
CNN reported that the military has burned through about 80% of interceptors used by Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, systems. A shortage of these interceptors could force troops into more dangerous tactics.
President Donald Trump denied the shortages. Last week he said,
We have plenty. We have a lot of the mid-level stuff, too. I mean, more than we could ever use, no matter what. But we have a lot. I'd like to have more, to be honest.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also pushed back, calling the CNN THAAD report NOT TRUE in a social media post. A Pentagon spokesperson said the military has everything it needs to carry out orders from the president.
Yet in late July, Hegseth made an urgent request for more than $67 billion in supplemental funding for the rest of the fiscal year. That request is part of a larger $1.5 trillion proposal for 2027. He warned that without the money, the military would face critical shortfalls in paying service members and replenishing equipment.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) published an analysis saying using these weapons now is not necessarily bad. The key question, authors Mark F. Cancian and Chris H. Park wrote, is whether the risk from reduced inventories in a future conflict is worth the gain in the current one.
Potential future conflicts involve Russia, China or North Korea. Even before the current war, many analyses called for larger munition inventories. The operation described as Operation Epic Fury has made the problem worse, and a multiyear rebuild may be ahead.
Though this is a national story, California has a direct stake in the defense industrial base. The state hosts major military installations and a large network of defense contractors. A rapid munitions rebuild could mean new contracts and jobs for California companies, while funding delays could create uncertainty for the local workforce.
The war with Iran has now lasted about five months. Before that, defense analysts already warned that U.S. munition stockpiles were too thin for a major conflict. The gap between the Pentagon's public denials and its urgent funding request highlights the strain on military supply lines.
The White House says there are plenty of munitions. The Pentagon's own budget request suggests otherwise. Lawmakers now face a decision on how fast to rebuild reserves, and that choice will ripple through California's defense economy.
