STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
U.S. missile stockpiles are running low.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
The war with Iran is in its sixth month. NPR has confirmed that the Army has used up most of its long-range attack missiles during the war. That was first reported by Reuters.
INSKEEP: NPR's Kat Lonsdorf is covering this story. Kat, good morning.
KAT LONSDORF, BYLINE: Hey. Good morning, Steve.
INSKEEP: OK. What do you know here, and what kind of missiles are we talking about?
LONSDORF: So what the U.S. is running out of are precision missiles like PrSMs and ATACMS, according to a U.S. official familiar with the data who was not authorized to speak publicly. And, Steve, just to talk you through those acronyms a bit, ATACMS stands for the Army Tactical Missile System. The other missile, the PrSM, stands for Precision Strike Missile. These are all offensive weapons which can be fired from hundreds of miles away. And they play an important role in protecting U.S. service members, since it means you don't have to send an American pilot, for example, too close to an enemy target.
INSKEEP: I have to pause and just note how impressive it is that the United States has an offensive weapon called an ATACM.
LONSDORF: Right. Yeah.
INSKEEP: But having noted that, how precise can you be in saying that the stockpiles are running low?
LONSDORF: Well, it's all classified. The Pentagon doesn't give out the numbers of missiles that have been used. We do know that there have been more than 15,000 Iranian targets hit during this war.
INSKEEP: Wow.
LONSDORF: But many of those have been in the massive U.S. airstrikes that the U.S. was carrying out earlier. Now, we should note that many senior military officials and analysts believe that the U.S. does have sufficient supply of offensive weapons for now, despite those shortages I just mentioned. You know, one of the concerns with running low on these precision missiles is that it takes years to replenish them. So a shortage leaves the U.S. vulnerable in future conflicts, too, particularly if China decides to attack Taiwan in the coming years.
INSKEEP: Oh. Well, there you've hit on something, Kat, 'cause it may well be the United States has plenty of missiles for now. But military planners would be asking, what if we need thousands more for a conflict that breaks out next week?
LONSDORF: Absolutely.
INSKEEP: That's why they would feel like it's a shortage.
LONSDORF: Right.
INSKEEP: Now, we're talking about offensive missiles here. What about defensive missiles?
LONSDORF: Right. So that is a key question. A report out last month by the Center for Strategic and International Studies sheds some light on that. It found that the U.S. stockpile of Patriot interceptors - those are the main tool that the U.S. has to shoot down incoming attack drones and missiles at targets in the Middle East, like U.S. bases - has shrunk by about two-thirds since this war started in Iran. The exact number of Patriots is also classified, but a U.S. official not authorized to discuss sensitive issues told NPR that the figures in that report are pretty accurate.
Those missiles also take a good amount of time to replenish. And they're expensive - around $4 million apiece, which is a lot when they're often being used to shoot down Iranian drones, which cost something like $20,000 to $30,000 each.
INSKEEP: Wow. What an imbalance. What is the military saying on the record about all this?
LONSDORF: Well, not a whole lot because, like I said, all of this information around weapons is classified. The Trump administration has sent a lot of mixed messages when talking publicly about the issue. In June, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that reports of depleted stockpiles were, quote, "manufactured stories," although he also acknowledged that rebuilding the stockpile could take months or years. And, you know, Steve, there is real urgency here, too. Ukraine desperately needs U.S.-made Patriot missiles to defend against Russian attacks. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is pleading for other countries to send some of their Patriot missiles to Ukraine, but so far, nobody has offered.
INSKEEP: NPR's Kat Lonsdorf, thanks so much. Really appreciate it.
LONSDORF: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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