The US has only about 25% of the Patriot missile interceptors needed for all the Pentagon’s military plans after burning Middle Eastern stockpiles in recent months.
The stockpile of patriot missiles is so low that it could raise concerns within the Pentagon and put potential US military operations at risk, and Deputy Secretary of Defense Stephen Feinberg has allowed the transfer to be suspended while examining the location where the weapons are being sent.
When Donald Trump told reporters when he told reporters “we’ll send a little more weapons to Ukraine” before he had dinner at the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, it seemed to have reversed at least a portion of that decision, but he refused to say whether it would include the Patriot System.
Trump also told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that he was not responsible for halting weapon shipments and directed a review of US weapon stockpiles, but did not order a freeze.
However, last month, the resolve to halt the relocation was largely based on the Pentagon’s global ammunition tracker, which is used to produce the lowest level of ammunition needed to implement the US military’s operational plan.
Many important ammunition stockpiles have been under its floor since the Biden administration began sending military aid to Ukraine, according to a tracker, managed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency.
People said the Trump administration began reviewing the depleted levels of patriot missiles and other munitions around February. Deliberations accelerated after the US deployed more interceptors in the Middle East to support the Houthi campaign and Israel.
The situation has also become even more severe following Trump’s move to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities last month, people said when the US launched nearly 30 patriot missiles to intercept Iran’s ballistic missiles in retaliation for a performance at Al-Udeid base in Qatar.
The recent depletion of patriot missiles and other munitions formed part of the basis of a “recommendation memo” by Secretary of Defense Elbridge Colby for policy.
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