Updated on: April 24, 2026 / 8:07 PM EDT / CBS News
Washington — Days after the United States began a military campaign against Iran, President Trump sought to project confidence, declaring the U.S. had a “virtually unlimited supply” of key munitions and could fight “forever.” Recent Pentagon testimony and an analysis of U.S. stocks suggest a more constrained picture: the United States retains advanced capabilities, but many of those systems are finite and costly to replace.
Analysts and officials have flagged shortages in advanced long-range strike missiles and interceptor munitions used to defend forces. The president’s announcement of an indefinite ceasefire extension with Iran created a window to re-arm Middle East assets after a five-week bombing campaign. But long-term supply questions persist.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies analyzed U.S. munitions and concluded the U.S. “may have expended more than half of the prewar inventory” of at least four key munitions, including Tomahawk cruise missiles. CSIS said the United States has enough missiles to continue this war under plausible scenarios, but the risk is in future conflicts.
Adm. Samuel Paparo, head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that scaling up production of high-end systems such as Tomahawks or the AGM-158 JASSM could take years for manufacturers like Lockheed Martin and Raytheon. “I think it will take one to two years for them to scale,” Paparo said, warning that production timelines won’t be soon enough for some contingencies.
Defense planners distinguish capability from capacity: the U.S. keeps world-leading systems, but quantities are limited and replacement rates slow. Air-defense interceptors are in demand across regions — the Middle East, Europe and the Indo-Pacific — forcing trade-offs as weapons expended in one theater are often drawn from inventories intended for another. Many advanced munitions depend on complex supply chains and specialized parts.
At a hearing, Paparo emphasized the heavy consumption modern wars demand and urged strengthening the defense industrial base and partnering with nontraditional firms. “I think we maintain deep magazines and there’s no walking away from the quantitative use of weapons. And our way forward is to supercharge our defense industrial base and equally important is to innovate with non-traditional primes,” he said, citing smaller companies building lower-cost drone technologies.
In early March, Mr. Trump met with defense executives who he said agreed to increase production of “Exquisite Class Weaponry” fourfold. Pentagon shorthand uses “exquisite” for the most advanced, costly and scarce systems — for example, Tomahawk or Patriot missiles. Since that meeting, the Defense Department announced framework agreements to boost production of THAAD systems, critical missile components and offensive Precision Strike Missiles. The Pentagon’s budget request for the year sought more than $70 billion to procure missiles and related equipment, a near threefold increase from the prior year.
CSIS noted that current production timelines mean rebuilding to prewar levels could take one to four years as missiles in the pipeline are delivered. Actual timelines may vary by weapon and supplier. Mr. Trump said he would meet defense companies again in May.
Concerns about stockpiles are not new. They were highlighted after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, when allies discovered production could not keep pace with battlefield needs. That crisis largely involved artillery; the current focus is on long-range missiles and interceptors that would be central in potential high-end conflicts, including with China.
Sen. Jack Reed warned that the Iran campaign has prompted significant posture shifts in the Indo-Pacific and on the Korean Peninsula, citing transfers of a carrier strike group, an amphibious ready group, missile defenses and other munitions to Central Command. Army Gen. Xavier Brunson, commander of U.S. Forces Korea, said THAAD systems remain on the peninsula but acknowledged munitions were being sent forward and that some radars and assets moved earlier had not returned.
Ultimately, even the most powerful military must operate within limits. Officials argue the path forward is to rapidly expand production capacity, incentivize industry to invest in factories, and diversify suppliers to reduce bottlenecks — steps that, by officials’ own timelines, will take years to bear full fruit.
