The US has closely depleted its stockpiles of surface-to-air missiles for the MIM-104 Patriot lengthy vary air defence system, which have fallen to only 25 p.c of the quantity deemed essential by the Pentagon. Extreme depletion has been assessed by a lot of Western sources to have been a major issue within the Trump administration’s latest choice to droop provides to Ukraine, because the Pentagon’s international munitions tracker confirmed that the stockpiles of a lot of important munitions had been beneath minimal ranges for a number of years, because the Biden administration tremendously escalated navy support to Ukraine in 2022. The munitions tracker is a system relied on by the U.S. Armed Forcescalculate the minimal ranges of munitions required to hold out operational plans. The London-based Guardian which was first to report the state of the arsenal referred to it as an “alarming depletion,” reflecting a broad consensus amongst Western assessments.
Studies relating to the state of the Patriot missile arsenal follows affirmation from theArmy Necessities Oversight Council Memorandum that deliberate procurements of the brand new Patriot Superior Functionality-3 Missile Phase Enhancement (PAC-3 MSE) surface-to-air missile had been quadrupled from 3,376 to 13,773 missiles. This enhance is anticipated tocost the Army a further $40.2 billion, with every PAC-3 MSE costing a median of $3.871 million. Shortages of interceptors had been exacerbated by an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps ballistic missile strike on a U.S. Air Drive facility, Al Udeid Airbase in Qatar, on June 23, which noticed Patriot techniques launch dozens of interceptors to shoot down the incoming barrage. This represented the biggest ever single expenditure of Patriot interceptors. The first reason behind shortages, nonetheless, has been the deliveries of the techniques on a big scale to Ukraine, the place they’ve suffered speedy attrition notably to ballistic missile assaults.
