Eleanor Danby The Pentagon has fired 'virtually all' its long-range precision-guided missiles in the war against Iran, current and former US officials told Reuters in an exclusive report. It is the clearest figure yet on how deeply the campaign has drawn down the stockpile Washington would need for a separate, larger fight.
Our earlier piece, The Wave-Forty Problem, argued that Western deterrence was thinning simultaneously across the Indo-Pacific, Europe and the Middle East. Reuters' reporting supplies a hard data point for that argument: the magazine for one front is close to bare.
Why it matters: long-range precision-guided missiles are the weapons US war plans lean on for a Taiwan contingency or a clash with Russia near NATO's eastern flank, letting forces strike defended targets without exposing aircraft or ships. Spending that inventory against Iran leaves less for a second crisis, while US forces remain tied down in the Middle East.
Hypothesis: the depletion narrows how forcefully Washington could respond if China moved on Taiwan or Russia tested Article 5 while US production lines refill stock spent against Iran. Supporting this: precision-guided munitions typically take months to years to build, and Reuters' sourcing describes 'virtually all' of the category as spent, not a partial drawdown. Against this: the report does not specify which missile types were exhausted or how quickly output could be surged, and the Pentagon has not confirmed the numbers publicly.
- Whether the Pentagon or White House confirms or disputes the Reuters figures
- Any emergency contracts or appropriations to accelerate precision-missile production
- Signs of tested US capacity or resolve in the Taiwan Strait or on NATO's eastern flank in the coming months
