Could the US run low on weapons for its assault on Iran?

Analysts say the US could run low on vital interceptor missiles within weeks.

Leaks from the Pentagon last week – as reported by media in the United States – have suggested that if strikes on Iran continue for more than 10 days, US stocks of some critical missiles could start to run low.

On Saturday, the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran while talks between Washington and Tehran over Iran’s nuclear programme and other issues, understood to include limiting Iran’s holding of ballistic missiles and ending its arming of regional armed groups, were ongoing.

Iran hit back with missile and drone attacks across the region, including targets in Israel as well as US military assets in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Iraq.

The Pentagon, the headquarters of the US Department of Defense, is also understood to have warned President Donald Trump that an extended military campaign in Iran would carry serious risks, including the high cost of replenishing Washington’s dwindling munitions stockpiles.

Trump has held that the US has enough in its stockpile to keep the military campaign in Iran going.

“The United States Munitions Stockpiles have, at the medium and upper medium grade, never been higher or better – As was stated to me today, we have a virtually unlimited supply of these weapons. Wars can be fought ‘forever,’ and very successfully, using just these supplies,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Tuesday.

While Trump said on Monday that the plan for the Iran war was initially “projected four to five weeks” but could go on for longer than that, analysts have told Al Jazeera that some weapons in its stockpile may have run very low by then, particularly crucial interceptor missiles.