US burns through long-range precision missile stockpiles in Iran conflict, raising defense spending and macro risk questions

The US military has chewed through the majority of its long-range precision missile inventory during its ongoing conflict with Iran, according to analysis from the Center for Strategic and International Studies. We’re talking about fewer than 827 Patriot interceptors remaining from a pre-war stockpile of roughly 2,200, and under 278 THAAD interceptors left from an original count of approximately 452. In plain numbers, that’s a 65% drawdown on Patriots and a similar depletion rate on THAAD systems. In the first 16 days of the conflict alone, around 320 ATACMS and Precision Strike Missiles were fired, nearly 46% of the total available inventory of those weapon types. A conflict that eats missiles faster than factories make them The escalation with Iran intensified earlier in 2026, with direct military confrontations concentrated around the Strait of Hormuz. Heavy utilization of Tomahawk cruise missiles compounded the inventory crisis, layering offensive expenditures on top of already strained defensive stocks. CSIS analysts have been sounding the alarm that this depletion raises serious readiness concerns for potential future operations against peer adversaries. The conflict timeline...