After six weeks of military strikes in the Middle East, the United States has shortages of key munitions, weapons platforms, ships, and planes. The depletion has affected both Tomahawk cruise missiles and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense interceptors, two of the Pentagon's most critical weapons systems.

The United States used more than eight hundred and fifty Tomahawk missiles in the first month of the war in Iran, representing approximately three billion dollars in costs. The exact number of Tomahawk missiles in the U.S. inventory is classified, but the Center for Strategic and International Studies estimates the country currently has between three thousand and four thousand. The 2026 defense budget funds the purchase of fifty-seven new Tomahawk missiles, a fraction of the number already expended.

Tomahawk cruise missiles are multimillion-dollar weapons capable of striking targets up to a thousand miles away. They were fired at targets in Iran during the Twelve-Day War, at Houthi rebels in Yemen in March 2025, and at suspected ISIS militants in Nigeria in December 2025.

Tom Karako, director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, questioned the use of the weapons against Iran. "Iran is not what the Tomahawk is for. Iran is what Small Diameter Bombs—gravity bombs—are for. Thousand-plus-kilometre cruise missiles are for when you have to suppress a wicked thicket of air defenses in China, because you don't want to fly your bombers in without doing that," Karako said. He also addressed the strategic implications of the drawdown. "If you're in China, you are gleefully counting on a little hand clicker all the Tomahawks that are being expended," he said.

The THAAD system has faced similar strain. During last summer's bombing campaign against Iran, the Islamic Republic retaliated against Israel with large waves of ballistic missiles, and the U.S. deployed two THAAD systems to Israel. Those systems fired more than one hundred and fifty interceptors, about a quarter of the total number of interceptors the Pentagon has purchased. At least one of the eight THAAD batteries the U.S. maintains worldwide has been damaged by Iranian strikes in the current conflict.

Lockheed Martin produces about one hundred THAAD interceptors per year, each costing close to thirteen million dollars. A full THAAD battery, including missiles and radar, costs upward of one billion dollars. To address the shortfall, the U.S. is moving components from a THAAD system in South Korea to the Middle East. That system in South Korea had been considered a key part of deterrence against North Korea. The U.S. spends more than eight hundred billion dollars a year on defense.