The interceptor’s fast speed and precision-guided weapons are making trouble for the Trump administration

Washington – The rapid pace at which the US is deploying some of the most advanced air defense systems and precision-guided munitions in the Middle East is a point of tension within the Trump administration as President Trump. fight against Iran are happening again, according to US military and intelligence officials familiar with internal investigations. It also raises broader concerns about America’s preparedness for potential conflicts in the Indo-Pacific.

Decreasing numbers of air defenses and long-range missiles have become a point of pressure for top military and military leaders who are weighing the demands of war with Iran against remaining ready to deter other adversaries, including China.

American officials, who spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic, said the US could not sustain the level at which it used direct weapons at the start of the campaign against Iran.

The defense industrial base is not equipped to produce missiles quickly enough to replenish the weapons launched or transferred to US Central Command, which oversees the conflict, leaving inventories under increasing pressure as military operations continue.

Interceptors are mainly used to protect US interests in the Gulf states, which are occupied by US forces and targeted by Iranian drones and missiles.

One allied country told CBS News that there is a need for a pause in hostilities, especially given the intensity of Iranian strikes that have been hitting Kuwait and Bahrain. Kuwait said earlier this week that Iran had hit its infrastructure, damaging it electricity and desalination plants.

In an interview last month with “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth denied there was a problem with the supplies. He acknowledged that some weapons may take longer to produce than others, but told Brennan, “We have a lot of them, we’re building more than ever.”

“Our reserves are strong, and will be stronger in the future,” Hegseth said.

But American commanders have been turning to using more GPS-guided bombs equipped with Joint Direct Attack Munitions, or JDAM, guidance aids, and Small Diameter Bombs, which are precision-guided munitions that can hit fixed targets at short distances and can be used as a substitute for long-range weapons.

Earlier in the conflict, the US military used long-range missiles such as the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile, known as JASSM, and the Tomahawk Land Attack Missile. Those weapons remain in the arsenal, officials said, but are being used sparingly.

In April, Adm. Samuel Paparo, head of the US Indo-Pacific Command, told lawmakers on Capitol Hill that ramping up production of advanced systems like the Tomahawk cruise missile or JASSM could take years, as defense companies work to expand production lines.

“I think it will take one to two years for them to grow,” said Paparo, whose job includes preparing for any potential conflicts in the Pacific region, including China. “It can’t be fast. There are limits to the magazine, and I have faith in all the world that they are being employed wisely.”

After the collapse of the ceasefire earlier this month, US strikes have focused on targets near Iran’s coast, reducing the need for planes to go deeper into Iranian territory, where they would face air defense networks and a greater threat from surface-to-air missiles.

US officials told CBS News that there is a limited inventory of Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS, long-range missiles fired from the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, known as HIMARS, a truck-mounted launcher capable of firing precision rockets and missiles.

Concerns about the range of certain weapons are not new. The Biden administration has delayed giving ATACMS to Ukraine in part because drawing on those books could undermine US military readiness, CBS News previously reported.

The US has a comparatively healthy Short-range Multiple Launch Rocket System, or GMLRS, which has also been fired HIMARS launcher, officials told CBS News, allowing commanders flexibility to target within its range.

The most pressing concerns involve air defense systems, which are used to defend against cruise and ballistic missiles, aircraft and deadly drones, several sources said.

The US has deployed large numbers of Patriot and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, intercontinental ballistic missiles to defend against both ballistic missiles and drones, which are eating up inventory faster than the industry can replace it.

To support operations in the Middle East, the Pentagon moved interceptor inventories from other regions, including stocks that had previously been stationed in the Indo-Pacific. That transfer has left some combatant commands operating by smaller margins than military planners think is ideal, especially as the US seeks to deter Chinese military action around Taiwan and reassure allies across the Pacific.

Asked to comment, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, Sean Parnell, told CBS News: “The American military is the most powerful in the world and has everything it needs to do it at the time and in the place chosen by the President. We have carried out many successful operations in all military commands while ensuring that the US military has the greatest capacity to protect our people and our interests.”

In 2022, Elbridge Colby, former defense chief during the Trump administration and now undersecretary for policy at the Pentagon, summed up the decisions facing America’s global military: “A missile that is used in Europe cannot be used in Asia,” he wrote in Time magazine.

He was commenting on the use of American weapons in the war in Ukraine. But the latest phase of America’s campaign against Iran has brought a similar strategic problem into refocusing.

A year later, Colby argued that weapons that would be useful in defeating a Chinese invasion along the first island chain — a chain of islands off the coast of China stretching from Japan, through Taiwan and the Philippines — should be reserved for that purpose. US officials’ concerns about current stockpiles involve some of those same weapons.

At the time of the suspension, a report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies said that more than 1,100 Tomahawks and 1,100 JASSMs were used and that the deadlines were approaching four years. It said the supply of air defense equipment is under severe strain, as the US burns through a large share of the pre-war inventory of THAAD, SM-3 missiles and Patriots. These weapons face production times of up to five years.

Taken together, the numbers suggest that the central problem is not just cost but time. Many weapons that are fired after weeks or months cannot be replaced for years.