A Middle Eastern Eye report said Israel is burning stockpiles of ballistic missile interceptors with a “quick clip.”
The concerns are particularly severe within a segment of the US government that worries that a direct US strike against Iran could cause massive Iranian retaliation against Israel, putting the “terrifying” drawdown of interceptors’ global inventory, the press reported.
Since June 13, Iran’s retaliatory military operation True Promise III has hit Israel’s military industrial complex as well as its exhausted air defenses.
Arrow’s air defense system, developed jointly by the US and Israel and designed to down fire long-range ballistic threats, is thought to be expensive to refill.
The Israeli regime’s challenges in replenishing these interceptors have continued since true promise I in April 2024 in response to Israel’s attacks on Iran’s diplomatic missions in Syria.
“The types of interceptors needed to fire down ballistic missiles are expensive and difficult to produce in large quantities,” former Pentagon official Dan Caldwell was quoted as saying in the report.
He warned that Israel and the United States may have to pay their stockpiles soon, especially given previous spending on attacks from Yemeni forces.
“I don’t know how many Iran can launch,” said Josh Paul, a former US State Department official who resigned in protest of Israel’s support for the war on Gaza, who cited him as saying. “I think the launcher is more of a problem than the missile.”
Three Arab officials involved in the mediation between Washington and Tehran told the Qatar News website that they believe that Israel’s involvement in the Israeli strikes with Iran is increasingly likely, but many have already described Washington as a “co-membergic beligerent.”
The US Secretary of Defense said the US Navy used SM-3 ship-based interceptors to fire Iranian missiles from the Eastern Mediterranean, adding that it was not an endless supply.
On Tuesday, hours after he threatened Iran directly, Trump held a meeting in the situation room with his national security adviser, U.S. media reported.
According to analysts, Trump is being held hostage by the influential Israeli lobby of Netanyahu and Washington.
Trump ignores the US director of a recent assessment of national intelligence, which clearly emphasized that Iran is not developing nuclear weapons.
“Unconditional surrender!” Trump wrote in a social media post Tuesday, but many saw direct warnings about Iran and conspiracy with Netanyahu.
MNA/