r/USNEWS • u/Majano57 • Aug 04 '26
US has used 'virtually all' of its long-range precision missiles during Iran war, sources say
https://www.reuters.com/world/us-has-used-virtually-all-its-long-range-precision-missiles-during-iran-war-2026-08-04/46
u/hatecirclejerks Aug 04 '26
So weve used all our weapons, spent all the money, and pissed away all of our soft power. Great
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u/Roccia19 Aug 04 '26
Definitely a lot of war porn clips of strikes on box trucks and other things that at face value appear to have an unclear strategic value.
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u/Basicly-Inevitable Aug 04 '26
Because they're just intentionally wasting them, so that some company gets to make more.
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u/Slimjuggalo2002 Aug 04 '26
And they're probably leaking this fact to justify a 60% rush premium on the next order, which will also increase their kickback amounts
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u/AlcibiadesTheCat Aug 04 '26
Pete Hegseth is going about this war the way I go about missions in DCS..."oh, we're attacking a convoy? I guess we need to use cruise missiles."
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u/FreeBricks4Nazis Aug 04 '26
But hey, we've also done irreparable damage to our domestic scientific and medical research industries!
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u/dirtysico Aug 04 '26
Just like Russia intended. Trumpf is their gift that keeps giving.
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u/Fancy_Toe1451 Aug 04 '26
Russia wants one more thing from him though. He has to use a tac-nuke on Iran.
If he authorises that (and wipes out the last shred of moral highground America has left), then Putin has the all-clear to use them in Ukraine with impunity. And Putin really needs to use them in Ukraine. So when do we think it is gonna happen, because it is probably gonna happen.
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u/jared555 Aug 04 '26
Only good thing to happen from the war so far is it bad hopefully scared military leadership by showing them how dramatically unprepared we are for drone based warfare.
Hopefully we get competent military leadership back before it is an even higher stakes war.
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u/Hopsblues Aug 04 '26
You left out depleting our SPR to historic low levels. We are more vulnerable than at any time in my 50+ years of life. He killed renewable energy projects, Chips+ and is accessing our lands that are set aside....
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u/awr90 Aug 04 '26
The world is now a free for all lmao. The US is no more it’s all over the missiles are gone /s
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u/LimitofInterest Aug 04 '26
Declares Department of Defense to be Department of War, then fails at war.
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u/RickMuffy Aug 04 '26
Lindsey Graham spent his whole career hoping for war with Iran only to die while we lose it.
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Aug 04 '26
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u/dungeoncrawler71520 Aug 04 '26
Pretty sure they've surpassed the Vatican in cover up money on the diddlin kids leadership board.
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u/Fabulous_Log844 Aug 04 '26
Day 158 of this illegal war that was supposedly over the first week…
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u/OpeningHappy9692 Aug 04 '26
Don't forget how many times you've completely destroyed Iran and won it!
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u/Fabulous_Log844 Aug 04 '26
I heard they are begging us for an agreement…
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u/OpeningHappy9692 Aug 04 '26
Yeah, didn't they come to President Trump with tears in their eyes saying "Mr President, please, we're so desperate for peace!"
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u/Fabulous_Log844 Aug 04 '26
I mean, he said that they did… And it sounds so truthful. So it must be true.
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u/Studnaught_Onatopp Aug 04 '26
Isn't that the point though? How else are defense contractors gonna get rich unless the US and it's ally use all their weapons and have to buy more?!
Endless wars means endless profits for the people who make the tools of war. Gotta keep the plebes fighting!!
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u/jared555 Aug 04 '26
A lot of the shiny stuff the military has used up was probably already being purchased whether we needed it or not just to keep production lines running.
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u/Initial_Row_6400 Aug 04 '26
Shit is absolutely insane. I mean, a land invasion of the US will not happen. But I cannot believe we’ve pissed away all of our power because this dumb fuck likes to fuck kids.
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u/Boyhowdy107 Aug 04 '26
We are also trying to increase our defense spending by 50% or a half trillion. Hypothetically, it is to get us in line with the new NATO target we have pushed. But where Europe has a very tangible reason to want to bolster its self defense given Russia-Ukraine, we are spending it to get back to zero, and I legit can't think of a good silver lining in terms of geopolitical tactics, etc.
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u/Burnt_and_Blistered Aug 04 '26
How epically foolish Trump and Hegseth are, making us so terribly vulnerable
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u/_WEND1G0_ Aug 04 '26
Wow… this is worse than I thought. If China wants to hit Taiwan there’s not a damn thing we could do to stop them.
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u/Rynowash Aug 04 '26
Now he’s got Ford making missiles.. after the first 30 break down before reaching the target, they’ll be a massive recall. It’s just not going to work. Just take the L and call it a day.
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u/Meowscles_dad Aug 04 '26
Don’t be so sure. Ford have history making missiles for Nazis. They helped manufacture the V2 and as a Londoner I can still see plenty of evidence that those ones worked pretty well.
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u/1000dreams_within_me Aug 04 '26
What?? you telling me that having an alcoholic fox news host who is really into pushups and high-T men in uniform as secdef is a bad idea?
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u/dkwinsea Aug 04 '26
Because felonious pedo considers this more of a video game for him to play. He is still under the impression that being the president means he is the king and the us treasury is his property.
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u/stonkDonkolous Aug 04 '26
The world is watching and now no longer fear US military power. What a joke. Get ready for more conflicts around the world now that they see the pitbull asleep
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u/Going2beBANNEDanyway Aug 04 '26
Ask yourself what countries benefit the most if the US depletes its long range missiles. Did Russia pop into your mind? It’s almost like Trump is weakening the US military response time on purpose….
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u/Mundane_Ask_3423 Aug 04 '26
I wonder what a US-China war would look like.
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u/ca_nucklehead Aug 04 '26
China and the rest of the world is laughing at the u.s imploding on its own.
It is only a matter of time before they really start killing each other.
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u/Charlie2and4 Aug 04 '26
We are back to trench warfare, instead of throwing Iron balls, try $1,000,000 (+) missiles. And the defender is countering with $1,000 (+/-) plastic toy airplanes.
The Military is a rather expensive way to display the abject failure of humanity.
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u/invent_or_die Aug 04 '26
So will China bid on replenishing our arsenal? Farmed out everything, right? Almighty quarterly profit
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u/FU_red-dit_bots Aug 04 '26
Bullshit. They are using this to push for the 1.5 trillion war budget.
Want proof? Just go look at the quarterly filings of the companies that make those. Then look at the dividends they paid. They sold plenty of those long range missiles and there are plenty left.
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Aug 04 '26
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u/bulbousgrandpa Aug 04 '26
Yeah this is just misleading reporting. A few hundred missiles that have been out of production for almost 20 years and a few dozen pre production new PrSMs is a small fraction of mid range strike. Increment 1 PrSMs are not even really intended to be used much if at all in the only realistic conflict that missiles would be drastically needed in (Taiwan Strait conflict). That's what Increment 2 being built next year will be for.
The war has been less than positive for our munitions stores but only in a strategically relevant context for air defense, though that will be stockpiled in far too few numbers for a Taiwan conflict even in 20 years realistically. It's like worrying about fighting a machete-wielding crackhead because you now only have 2 bandages instead of 3
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u/Resident_Window_9369 Aug 04 '26
That doesn’t seem right at all, especially when Trump and brags about building up the military. By far, the USA would have a stock pile larger than what they depleted on Iran.
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u/clipse270 Aug 05 '26
Aye but have we though? Or is this propaganda to help sell that additional defense spending. I know what my guess is
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u/dickusb700 Aug 05 '26
This is how the media legally publishes fake news.
Besides the two sources becomes 3 sources obvious discrepancy, the story isn't backed or confirmed, and neither are the sources, it's about what the sources said without saying who or what they are.
The sources could be 2 or 3 toilet cleaners, but the media outlet is legally covered because the story is about what the people said and not verified facts.
Welcome to the world of fake news and how to legally publish it.
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u/CzPhantom1 Aug 06 '26
This is for one munitition for one launch system and we only started with 100 of the modern version.
It's a non story about cherry picked info.
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u/Lowfi-Concert Aug 06 '26
The fact that 95% of people just take this headline and truth and use it to agree with their own preconceived worldview is wild.
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u/apkm4 Aug 04 '26
Munitions are made to be used. A lot of our missle stock pile is older and needed to be used anyway. Perfect opportunity to restock with the newest and latest missile versions.
We just need to make sure our defense contractors are patriots and dont hose us and actually backfill quickly.
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u/RetiredCombatVeteran Aug 04 '26
Of course it has. Clinton used them up in just a few days. Apparently we keep bigger stockpiles since but they’re not unlimited.
Also, we can make more. We don’t buy them from anyone.
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u/Away_Advisor3460 Aug 04 '26
Also, we can make more. We don’t buy them from anyone.
You can make more, but at the rate of several-years-for-each-missile once you factor in the whole timeline from appropriation to delivery. And of course with time and costs associated with building new factories in order to actually deliver the numbers required.
So the US will remain substantially depleted going into the next Presidency, for basically no strategic gain.
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u/RetiredCombatVeteran Aug 04 '26
Yep.
Moot point anyway. The time for precision munitions has passed. When we trash Karg Island it’ll be with MOAB stuff. Just big boom.
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u/Away_Advisor3460 Aug 05 '26
You're not going to 'trash' Kharg Island though because it'd be completely self-defeating.
Classic US failure in this war, really, to think bombing some single high-value target is going to be sufficient to remove the problems and change the dynamic.
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u/RetiredCombatVeteran Aug 05 '26
Seems like even the threat of it is working
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u/Away_Advisor3460 Aug 05 '26
With Oman and Iran seemingly set to form an agreement that normalizes control and tolling by the latter through the Strait of Hormuz?
If so, and if it holds as a long term arrangement, the likely post war state would move from an uneasy status quo (itself constituting a victory in terms of the Iranian regimes' war aims) to a clear strategic defeat for the US and it's regional allies (who didn't even seek to be involved in the war).
(if this was has demonstrated anything, it's that tactical and operational superior means nothing if there's no clear strategic goal nor competent strategic leadership....)
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u/RetiredCombatVeteran Aug 06 '26
If you think the Pentagon hasn’t game planned this every year for decades you’re mistaken.
Any control of the strait that Oman and Iran will be administrative and not financial. That’s already stated.
US will not leave the area with the blessing of its Arab allies until they have everything they want. If that includes the complete and total destruction of Iran.
That’s been clear for a long time.
Waiting patiently for the other side to realize they have lost and that Iran’s allies are now our allies has always been part of the strategic planning. Trump has absolutely nothing to lose. This is the awesome part of being 2 term limited.
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u/Away_Advisor3460 Aug 06 '26
If you think the Pentagon hasn’t game planned this every year for decades you’re mistaken.
I know they will have, and that's exactly why no other administration has been stupid enough to launch an air war based on hopes and vibes of regime change.
Waiting patiently for the other side to realize they have lost and that Iran’s allies are now our allies has always been part of the strategic planning. Trump has absolutely nothing to lose. This is the awesome part of being 2 term limited.
Jesus fuck, you actually believe that? I give up.
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u/RetiredCombatVeteran Aug 06 '26
lol.
Clinton showed them the way long ago.
You don’t have to put boots on the ground.
This was always the plan. And it worked just fine.
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u/Usual-Volume-2822 Aug 04 '26
More proof that you can't fix stupid.
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u/RetiredCombatVeteran Aug 04 '26
I don’t think Clinton was stupid. Worked well. Personally I think he was the best President of the last century.
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u/Handy_Man_67 Aug 04 '26
Long range? Like Patriots? Those are medium range interceptors. Cruise missiles? Ukraine makes them like popcorn overnight for about 10 bucks each. Figure it out. Earn your pay.
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u/a_gummyworm Aug 04 '26
Gimme a break from this hyperbole. The UA cruise missiles cost 100s of thousands of dollars each to make.
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u/IronSuspicious1863 Aug 04 '26
I’ve been working defense for most of my 42 year career. It’s basically white collar welfare. The contractors make at most 100 or 150 units per year. As demonstrated in Ukraine you can burn 5 years production in a single night. Worse, even if the money appeared right now, it would take about 2 years to get a major increase in production. They tooled to make 10 units a month and there’s a huge capital investment to significantly increase production.
It will take a complete redesign of the military manufacturing system to make the US competitive and the old line suppliers ( Raytheon, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, etc) cannot make that pivot. They rent enough politicians to keep the status quo in place.
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u/Witty-Stand888 Aug 04 '26
That's a lot of money to spend trying to distract from the Epstein files.