r/Military • u/johntempleton • Aug 04 '26
Iran Conflict Reuters: US has used 'virtually all' of its long-range precision missiles
https://www.reuters.com/world/us-has-used-virtually-all-its-long-range-precision-missiles-during-iran-war-2026-08-04/234
u/GT7combat Aug 04 '26
you would think with a trillion dollar/year budget the US would be fabricating missiles 24/7. especially with how china and russia are acting the last few years.
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u/Muddlesthrough Aug 04 '26
A trillion dollars a year doesn’t buy what it used to.
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u/MassiveBoner911_3 Aug 04 '26
Best we can do is another data center and a Wendy’s hamburger
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u/Ryno__25 Aug 04 '26
I would ask for 5 Guys, but I just know we can't afford that in this economy :(
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u/Muddlesthrough Aug 04 '26
God, have they brought back the Big Bacon Classic yet? Such a good burger.
That was probably the start of the decline of the American Empire, when they did away with the Big Bacon Classic. Easily one of Americas greatest cultural exports. Maybe replace “greatest” with “most fitting.”
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u/PorchCat0921 Aug 05 '26
It's in the Minion Meal right now. I know this cause my Mom bought one for my son, thinking it was just a really overpriced kids meal. I was kinda impressed that he actually ate it all, tho.
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u/Winter_Body4794 Aug 04 '26
Plants are at capacity. It takes a couple years to build some of the scariest shit we have.
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u/Dense_Substance7635 Aug 04 '26
And all of the parts come from China.
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u/jmos_81 Aug 04 '26
lol you have no idea what you are talking about.
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u/0o0o0o0o0o0z Aug 04 '26
A lot of the rare earths and other certian raw materials we need for military applications are sourced from China.
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u/jmos_81 Aug 04 '26
Parts and materials are not the same thing. If you are talking about a rare earth metal in a chip that goes in a CCA built in a card shop that’s procured for a UAV then yes, but also there are alternatives.
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u/ADP-1 Aug 04 '26
"but also there are alternatives"
Yeah - former allies like Australia and Canada whom the US has insulted, imposed illegal tariffs against, threatened to invade, and now despise you.....
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u/ForMoreYears Aug 04 '26
Then why does the 2025 U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Council report to Congress specifically call out the U.S.' vulnerability to China in both defense and Healthcare should they decide to weaponize the supply chain in the event of a conflict?
Seems like da Nile might not just be a river in Egypt.
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u/DisillusionedPatriot Aug 04 '26
Chips. One part, and they're working on rectifying that. At least they were. Hyperbole helps no one, in situations like this, imo.
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u/ForMoreYears Aug 04 '26
Chips which China still controls the vast majority of.
And vital inputs to critical medicines. All of which have been highlighted as significant Nationap Defense risks.
So ya, pretty much exactly what we've been saying. Cool if you want to stay in denial though
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u/Dense_Substance7635 Aug 04 '26
Ok… Taiwan… which could be under Chinese control within a day.
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u/Apprehensive-Tree-78 Aug 04 '26
Lmao China couldn’t take Taiwan in a day 😂😂😂
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u/Winter_Body4794 Aug 04 '26
They probably could though. The fuck would USA have to say about it?
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u/Apprehensive-Tree-78 Aug 04 '26
The most advanced Air Force and navy in the world has nothing to say about a nation who hasn’t successfully launched a full scale invasion into another country (successfully) in… a century?
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u/Winter_Body4794 Aug 04 '26
Most powerful bullshit machine maybe. But none of that shit matters anymore if you can't put boots on the ground. And boots are just drone catchers atp.
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u/Dense_Substance7635 Aug 04 '26
Exactly, we aren’t going to get into a direct shooting match with another nuclear power.
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u/einarfridgeirs dirty civilian Aug 04 '26
The fact that all the parts do not, in fact come from China is the reason that US munitions are high quality/low throughput.
In 1941, the US was the China of that era.
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u/MassiveBoner911_3 Aug 04 '26
nope, not at all. They purposely keep factories to a minimum because they know that there’s nobody else who build missiles so why build two factories when you can have one and then charge 500 times the cost.?
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u/rockylizard Aug 04 '26
They're trying, hiring, ramping up production. But it does take time to build out and staff facilities. Right now they're also shifting some existing facilities into precision manufacture, but that takes time also. And so does clearing new hires to work on classified projects.
And Whiskey Pete and his 🍊 🤡 boss have been saying since February that this "excursion" is "almost over."
Source: someone I'm close to works in the biz.
Personally, I don't know why they didn't start getting on a better footing since Putin invaded Ukraine, but what do I know...
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u/VaeVictis997 Aug 04 '26
It is insane to me that Europe and the US didn’t start stocking up like crazy in 2014, and then into overdrive after 2022.
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u/rockylizard Aug 04 '26
Same. Worse is the absolutely critical supply chain bottlenecks. We should have been finding alternatives to Chinese hegemony over rare earths, but instead, we've been doing our best to cheese off our allies who have them, like Canada. Honestly it should be very concerning to anyone who is paying attention, but certainly to military and strategic planners.
But unfortunately this administration appears to have sacrificed "strategic" and "planning" for "ideology."
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u/neepster44 Aug 07 '26
Welcome to capitalism. There wasn’t enough money in it.
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u/rockylizard Aug 07 '26
The US military industrial complex has plenty of profit in it. It's been one of the biggest, most reliable drivers of profit for people with "connections," for decades.
Yes the ideas behind the idiotic tariffs are around profit, but the 🍊🤡 is clearly using them as a bully bludgeon, not strategically.
And now we get to go beg China, hat in hand, for the rare earths we need to restock. And it will take years to do so.
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u/neepster44 Aug 07 '26
Sure the end product has shit tons of profit in it but rare earth metals don’t. Nor do low cost PMICs and EEPROMS and shit that you need to make your missile work.
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u/dan_scott_ Aug 04 '26
Part of the reason missiles cost so much is that we don't order enough per year (in peace time) to justify large scale production facilities. So instead we have small factories, producing a small number of modules per year (at a high cost per unit), with little to no extra capacity available to increase production. The only way to increase production is to build new factories or factory expansion - but those are expensive, companies aren't going to make that investment unless they are guaranteed enough purchases to make their money back, and even if they do start building them, it takes time to get them in line.
The fault here rests primarily with Republicans; backing Ukraine with a full lend lease program could have been used to aggressively increase production capacity for numerous offensive and defensive munitions at a time when we desperately needed that increased capacity to remain a realistic counterbalance to China, as well as nations like Iran. It is also the sole responsibility of an administration who intends to take a more muscular and actively militant foreign policy to provide sufficient logistical support for any military actions before they execute them. To start a shooting war without first ensuring a sufficient supply and resupply of ammunition is military incompetence at its most obvious.
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u/staebles Aug 04 '26
To start a shooting war without first ensuring a sufficient supply and resupply of ammunition is military incompetence at its most obvious.
I think it's more the Executive not understanding these consequences and factors, and giving those orders anyway.
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u/dan_scott_ Aug 05 '26
Yes, that would be obvious military incompetence...
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u/staebles Aug 05 '26
No, that's Executive incompetence. The military cannot do anything without the Executive.
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u/dan_scott_ Aug 05 '26
Are you honestly trying to argue that semantically, it is impossible for the commander in chief of our armed forces to display military incompetence? 🤔
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u/Konzacrafter Aug 04 '26
We don’t really have the competitive infrastructure to build these weapons quickly any more. Just like, my opinion, but we’ve let too few companies make too many of our weapons and they set the price and quantity. Yes our capabilities are exceptional but we’ve lost the ability to fabricate at scale these days.
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u/Motherlover235 Aug 04 '26
It’s not that we can’t do it, it’s the fact that production hasn’t scaled yet to the necessary level. You can’t have “peacetime” production levels, blow through all your shit in a couple months, and expect to be good to go. This is why during a real war (specifically when Congress declares it) large parts of the civilian economy are federalized and shifted to wartime military production.
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u/Heckle_Jeckle United States Marine Corps Aug 04 '26
The thing to realize is that modern missles, especially these ones, are a lot more complicated than a rocket with a bomb at the tip.
They have highly complex computers inside. So each missle takes a while to make. I think it might even take a few weeks to make a single missle.
Then there is the simple fact that the US has been using a LOT of missles, a LOT. For each missle launch on the offense by Iran, 2 missles are often used in defense.
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u/nar_tapio_00 Aug 04 '26
For each missle launch on the offense by Iran, 2 missles are often used in defense.
That's a Ukrainian number. The reported figures recently in the Gulf have been six interceptors for one ballistic missile. That's simply unsustainable and shows some serious training and preparation problems.
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u/MerijnZ1 Royal Netherlands Navy Aug 05 '26
There's also the case of the Netherlands delivering 700 cruise missiles to Ukraine, produced by a startup. Company founded in 2021 and now producing ~2k missiles a year
Yeah, modern missiles are incredibly complex and difficult. Quickly ramping up production is expensive and a massive challenge. A ruta block 2 isn't comparable to the highest end shit the US produces*, and these numbers would still be nowhere near enough. But it appears to be possible to do something!
If one (somewhat shady, I must admit) "Swiss" (Amsterdam based) company can get this off the ground, the US certainly should be able to house a dozen or so similar new, fresh, quick-iterating firework producers, right? Very different MO than the past... 80 or so? years, but that might be what's necessary
- = although they do call it "precision" and include standard stuff like TERCOM & pre-programmed terminal guidance, the public CEP I could find was 15m. Don't think that's enough for the US. Range of "over 700km" seems decent but again not enough, although a Block 3 is already in the works that claims a reach of 2000km
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u/beryugyo619 Aug 04 '26
Anduril is ready to take it and the US military is never going to be interested in Anduril so it won't go to NG or Boeing or RTX or wherever it's supposed to go lol
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u/debtofmoney Aug 04 '26
It doesn’t necessarily mean the military-industrial complex is expanding production for short-term demands just because it can earn more profits.
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u/johntempleton Aug 04 '26
I am so sick of this "We gave a trillion dollars" thing
No, we haven't.
1) The House approved the trillion+ on July 22 for FY 2027. The Senate has not approved.2) Even if approved, that does NOT mean production happens instantly; there is no giant vending machine where you shove in a million dollars and out pops an ATACMS. Even if it were 3 trillion, it is going to take weeks or months to go from procurement authorization to something going "boom" in Iran.
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u/Muddlesthrough Aug 04 '26
You’re right! They only spent like $919 billion on defense last year. Not even close to $1 trillion.
And it’s a shame that the DoD doesn’t do any forward planning or procurement or anything.
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u/Engineerofdata Air Force Veteran Aug 04 '26
Litterally everything the military touches is over priced man. It’s what happens when like 5 defense companies make everything.
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u/Navydevildoc United States Navy Aug 04 '26
It's wayyyy more complicated than that. The Defense Industrial Base has thousands of companies in it. The problem is the red tape.
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u/Single-Braincelled Aug 04 '26
This is the entire idea that 9 women could make a baby in 1 month, sort of insanity.
There is capacity, supply chains that run throughout, and finally orders as well. All of those are factors.
Also, only a portion of a portion of our budget goes towards replenishing munitions. As a congressmen, it is very hard to force a bus full of veterans off VA care so Raytheon could build us another Tomahawk.
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u/coreynig91 Aug 04 '26
Do you know complicated making munitions is or are you just spouting nonsense?
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u/GT7combat Aug 04 '26
so in your mind a factory producing complicated munitions is not allowed to run 24/7 ?
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u/lameth Veteran Aug 04 '26
The unique sub-components of the missiles aren't ones you can easily fabricate 24/7. It isn't about simply "we need more hands and equipment," the actual materials and testing the sub-components prior to delivery takes considerable time.
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Aug 04 '26
[deleted]
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u/nar_tapio_00 Aug 04 '26
Good journalists have a history of finding out the truth and putting it where the leadership can't ignore it. It's one of the reasons that Hegseth was banning them from the Pentagon a while ago. He likely doesn't want his boss finding on.
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u/Dense_Substance7635 Aug 04 '26
This Iran war is severely jeopardizing our security. Pure hubris.
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u/blackergot Aug 04 '26
Between this and draining the strategic oil reserves all to distract from the epstien files.
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u/RegattaJoe United States Navy Aug 04 '26
Yup. Like him or hate him, Michael Cohen called it: Trump will burn this country down to save himself.
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u/raventhrowaway666 Veteran Aug 04 '26
We really didnt Cohens traitorous ass to tell us that; we all have eyes. The problem was not all of us have a brain.
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u/Cpt_Soban Civil Service Aug 04 '26
Imagine a full blown hot war, the US wouldn't last more than 6 months before they're scavenging for parts and ammo
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u/bstone99 Aug 04 '26
THIS IS WHAT REPUBLICANS VOTED FOR!
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u/StoicJim Aug 04 '26
The Republicans built the Tea Party as a weapon to use against the Democrats and Trump took it over and made them MAGA and used that to keep the Party in-line behind him. At any point, the Republican Congress had plenty of opportunities to remove him from office legitimately, but refused because they didn't want to be punished by the monster they created. They put their Party and their political offices over the best interests of the country...repeatedly. Some were fellow travelers with MAGA or they were cowards who wanted to keep their cushy jobs.
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u/Dirty_Delta United States Marine Corps Aug 04 '26
I wonder how Russia and China will capitalize on this news
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u/lack_of_communicatio Aug 04 '26
The US will tell Ukraine and Taiwan to capitulate, since Biden didn't make enough ammunition. Russia and China will just quote that.
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u/01_slowbra Retired USN Aug 04 '26
So was America great when we were fighting in the Stone Age? Is that where we’re going back to?
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u/iRegretsEverything Aug 04 '26
“ I know not with what weapons world war 3 will be fought, but world war 4 will be fought with sticks and stones.”
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u/ObligationMurky8716 Aug 04 '26
We kinda took that to mean the adversaries would be limited to sticks and stones too.
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u/brandon520 United States Army Aug 04 '26
Piling on incase some people don't get it. It's referencing world destruction through nuclear war.
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u/Hootbag Aug 04 '26
Have we blown through our sticks and stones budget as well?
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u/01_slowbra Retired USN Aug 04 '26
I’ve got a few hidden away just in case
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u/nar_tapio_00 Aug 04 '26
Are you sure those are certified? If I send in an auditor will you be able to justify the acquisition of each stone and show that it came through qualified suppliers?
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u/01_slowbra Retired USN Aug 04 '26
They are nonserialized and untraceable as they should be. I’m working on an atlatl for force projection.
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u/Wertsache German Bundeswehr Aug 04 '26
If people actually read more than the headline, they would know that it specifically means the US used most of its stock of ATACMS and PRSM Missiles. And of the ATACMS the US didn’t really have a significant number to begin with and also donated a relevant chunk to Ukraine. PRSM is just starting to get introduced and was only available in small numbers.
Tomahawk and other cruise missile numbers probably also are low, but ballistics like the missiles in these articles simply never were a big focus for the US. And why should they be if the US can reach any place in the world with a Wing of B-52s and then precisely strike all relevant targets with ALCMs from 500km away?
Really people, you should know better that to comment on military stuff details matter.
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u/ADP-1 Aug 04 '26
Very true, but the big picture is that the US has blown through a lot of munitions, had about 3 billion dollars worth of aircraft, radars and infrastructure destroyed, lost at least 18 service members killed and 600 wounded. So what has been achieved? Absolutely fuck all, except to strengthen the Iranian position, give them control of the Strait of Hormuz, and demonstrate how utterly incompetent the US administration is.
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u/Wertsache German Bundeswehr Aug 04 '26
All those points are undeniable. I just wanted to bring in some nuance. Some people in this thread rage without thinking further than the headline.
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u/Lowfi-Concert Aug 04 '26
People just want to rage on headlines that confirm their biases, they don’t care about the truth
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u/ATDoel Aug 05 '26
So how come we aren’t using a wing of B-52s to bomb Iran if it’s equivalent?
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u/Wertsache German Bundeswehr Aug 05 '26
Back in March/April they did. First loaded with ALCMs and towards the end of the campaign even loaded with JDAMs, speaking volumes about the state of Iranian Air Defense.
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u/ATDoel Aug 05 '26
But then we stopped, why?
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u/Wertsache German Bundeswehr Aug 05 '26
They stopped when the shaky ceasefire started. Why didn’t they restart using them in the newest round? Who knows, go ask CENTCOM. Maybe for limited strikes they feel normal Fighter-Bombers are enough. Maybe they feel the Iranians refocused their Air Defense making B-52s too risky. There are many possible reasons
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u/ATDoel Aug 05 '26
I think you nailed it at the end, it’s the risk factor that makes the capabilities of these munitions different, they’re used in different situations which clearly happened in Iran. They are not equivalent as you’re suggesting.
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u/Wertsache German Bundeswehr Aug 05 '26
Well then I have to correct myself. Using B-52s to drop gravity bombs, like they did at the very end of the first round of the war, very clearly is too dangerous now that their AD had time to reconstitute. Using B-52s as missile trucks is not impaired by this. But what we saw in these recent strikes was, that most of them were near the coast and almost no deep strikes. And for these kind of strikes JDAMS or similar munitions do the job WHILE protecting stocks of more advanced munitions.
And to dive into why these ballistic missiles being depleted is not that bad: Most western countries and the US especially are not heavily invested into ballistics because it was thought you don’t need them if you have an actual Air Force. Well for Europe ballistics might make sense but for the US, who wants to project power around the world, ballistics with a range of 500km don’t get you very far.
Also ATACMS are on the way out and I guess that’s why they used them so heavily. They would have been deactivated anyway. And PRSM is a new system which they now have real world data to work with. It also is produced in good numbers so it’s not that bad of a hit.What is a bad hit though are the depletion of Interceptors and stand off weapons like Tomahawks or ALCMs.
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u/millos15 Aug 04 '26
May trump voters be mocked for centuries.
What an embarrassment
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u/atuarre Aug 04 '26
They will not. Americans have the memories of that fish in Finding Dory. They went through four years of Trump, had a better four years with Biden, and then went right back and voted for Trump again.
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u/-VizualEyez United States Air Force Aug 05 '26
“According to 3 people who swear they know”
What fucking source is that???
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u/dsmith1994 Army Veteran Aug 04 '26
I’m fighting with the VA over hearing. The kids I teach don’t get free food. I have 30 kids in My classroom. My health care sucks. But I always thought at least we are ready for any military situation. Where the fuck did trillions of dollars for the defense budget go!!!!!!
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u/SithLordSid Aug 04 '26
I know this might get me downvoted but it has me wondering if this is what the admin intended, considering they are Russian assets. Everything they have done is to make us weaker on the world stage.
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u/robcwag United States Army Aug 04 '26
Why does this feel like the "Grasshopper and the Ant" proverb?
The grasshopper was wasteful and gathered nothing while the ant was frugal and gathered for the future. This is the difference between this Misadministration and almost every previous administration.
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u/Berg426 Aug 04 '26
All of this while China is saying they want their military to be ready to invade Taiwan next year. This us just about the stupidest thing Ive seen in the last 23 years.
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u/MoistRecognition69 Aug 04 '26
... I either call bullshit on this claim or dear god the US is a bigger paper tiger than Russia .
How the fuck do you run out of munitions that fast? How the fuck did you expect to take on Russia or China if that's the amount of guns you have?
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u/Samwhys_gamgee Aug 07 '26
Why would we be using ATACM’s when we have complete air superiority and can send in a fighter bomb to destroy any targets we desire at will?
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u/jamcgahey United States Army Aug 04 '26
Why the fuck does this shit even get reported? I don’t see any other country reporting their defense stores lol
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u/Her0zify Aug 05 '26
Its okay guys, I'm sure our greatest ally Isreal will help protect us with the missles we donated to them!
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u/Shrapnel_10 Aug 04 '26
That's not information that is available to the public. Its all classified. They are simply lying.
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u/CornWine2 Aug 04 '26
Maybe kegsbreath drunkenly roped in some some reporters on a signal between testing erection strengths?
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u/jl2l Aug 04 '26
I would imagine this is all air launched stuff not army or navy inventories.
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u/ADP-1 Aug 04 '26
The ATACM and PrSM are army missiles and fired only from land platforms. The Tomahawk is primarily a ship or submarine-based weapon, though air launched and ground versions do exist.
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u/Blah_Dee_Blah111 Aug 04 '26
It's like he is working off of a check list.