The Pentagon is days away from having to choose which missiles to intercept and which hits to absorb as it rapidly burns through defensive precision weapons during the war in Iran, according to a new report.
The Washington Post reported that it is unclear whether Iran could run out of offensive weapons first as "Operation Epic Fury" rages on.
Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, addressed the concerns during a news briefing on Wednesday, saying that U.S. forces have "sufficient precision munitions for the task at hand, both on the offense and defense."
He went on to say that managing to degrade Iranian defenses will allow the U.S. to use less sophisticated weapons to target the country. So far it has used hundreds of units of its most advanced munitions, including Patriot missiles and THAAD interceptors, as well as Tomahawk cruise missiles.
Trump backed the notion, saying in a social media post on Monday that U.S. inventories of "medium and upper medium grade" munitions are "virtually unlimited." The most sophisticated weapons, he said, are in "good supply, but not where we want to be."
The WaPo cited Behnam Ben Taleblu, who tracks Tehran's weapons programs at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, who said the country had over 2,000 ballistic missiles before the conflict began and many more drones. The country is largely sending its drones to Gulf countries while using its ballistic missiles on Israel.
"Iran is firing smaller volleys of missiles, signaling an interest in preserving their stocks while still testing and attriting Israel's air and missile defenses," he said.
However, both Israel and the U.S. have been targeting Iran's missile launchers, meaning it could be harder for Tehran to make use of its stockpile, even if it preserves it. A U.S. official made reference to the strategy, saying that the pace of attacks by the Iranian regime has fallen "dramatically."
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