TEHRAN, Jun. 18 – As the Israeli aggression against Iran entered its fifth day on Tuesday, US officials are becoming increasingly concerned over the rapid depletion of the Israeli regime’s advanced missile interceptors, a report says.
Quoting a senior US official familiar with resupply efforts, a report in the Middle East Eye said Israel is burning through its stockpile of ballistic missile interceptors at a “rapid clip.”
The concern is particularly acute within segments of the US government that worry a direct American strike on Iran could provoke massive Iranian retaliation against Israel, risking a “horrendous” drawdown of the US global inventory of interceptors, Press TV reported.
Since June 13, Iranian retaliatory military operation True Promise III has inflicted heavy blows not only on the Israeli military-industrial complex but also on its depleting air defenses.
Arrow air defense system, which is jointly developed by the US and Israel and designed to shoot down long-range ballistic threats, is considered expensive to replenish.
The Israeli regime’s challenges in restocking these interceptors have continued since True Promise I in April 2024 in response to the Israeli attack on Iran’s diplomatic mission in Syria.
“The types of interceptors that are required to shoot down ballistic missiles are expensive and difficult to produce in mass quantities,” Dan Caldwell, a former senior Pentagon official, was quoted as saying in the report.
He warned that Israel and the US may soon have to ration their stockpiles, especially given previous expenditures against attacks from the Yemeni military.
“We don’t know how much more Iran can launch,” said Josh Paul, a former US State Department official who resigned in protest of US support for Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, was quoted as saying. “I think it is a problem more of launchers than missiles.”
MEHR
