Washington aims to replenish its inventory of interceptor missiles as the Iran War rages on.
The U.S. Department of War (DOW) announced plans to work with Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin to secure nearly 14,000 more Patriot Advanced Capability-3 and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptor components, according to a press release Monday. This comes after the Center for Strategic and International Studies estimated on July 27 that the United States used up around two-thirds of its pre-war Patriot and THAAD inventories during the Iran War.
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“Since June 2025, the Department has been laying the groundwork and establishing key partnerships to expand munitions production,” a Pentagon official told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “By leveraging Undefinitized Contract Actions, we’re getting private industry to invest upfront—cutting through red tape to deliver to our Warfighters at the speed of relevance.”
Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
“Building the Arsenal of Freedom requires robust, dynamic supply chains at every level of the industrial base,” DOW Under Secretary for Acquisition and Sustainment Michael P. Duffey stated in the press release Monday. “Framework agreements with munition components suppliers like Northrop Grumman are vital to accelerating the tripling of PAC-3 and quadrupling of THAAD interceptor production.”
This initiative is part of the DOW’s Acquisition Transformation Strategy, which “prioritizes engaging directly with key suppliers at all levels of the industrial base … [r]ather than relying solely on prime contractors,” according to the department’s press release.
The U.S. had 2,300 Patriot and 452 THAAD interceptors before the Iran War started in February, according to the CSIS report. This has since dwindled to 759-827 and 234-278 interceptors, respectively, as of July 27.
However, America’s air defense campaign has been “largely successful with high- though not perfect- interception rates,” according to the report.
“America’s military is the most powerful in the world and has everything it needs to execute at the time and place of the President’s choosing,” Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said, i24NEWS reported Tuesday. “We have executed multiple successful operations across combatant commands while ensuring the US military possesses a deep arsenal of capabilities to protect our people and our interests.”
U.S. commanders are reportedly planning to conserve their current inventory of interceptors by opting not to shoot down Iranian projectiles targeted towards unpopulated areas of American bases in the region, according to i24NEWS.
Additionally, America’s Tomahawk cruise missile inventory — which is essential for operations in the Iran War due to its long-range and precise targeting capabilities — was also severely depleted during the Iran War and other conflicts that the U.S. has been engaged in, Business Insider reported in March.
The Tomahawk system may be difficult to replace due to supply chain bottlenecks for individual components used to build them, according to a May report by the Georgetown Security Studies Review.
Meanwhile, America’s Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) inventory — the latest replacement for the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) — was virtually depleted by the war, the CSIS also reported in May. However, the supply was already small since it only recently began production.
It’ll likely take years to replenish America’s missile inventory, according to the report.
The PrSM was specifically designed to counter China in the event of an Indo-Pacific conflict, DEFENSESCOOP reported in March.
(DCNF)
