The US-Israeli air defense effort against Iran's missile and drone barrage has consumed approximately one-fifth of America's interceptor stockpile in just three days, former National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster has estimated. The figure underscores the enormous cost of sustained air defense operations - and raises urgent questions about US readiness for a potential conflict with China.
McMaster disclosed the estimate during a GoodFellows discussion at the Hoover Institution, as reported by "Hvylya".
By McMaster's count, the US, Israel, and Gulf States have fired "about 1,500 interceptors" against "maybe 2,000 drones" and "600 or so ballistic missiles." The key systems being depleted include Patriot PAC-3 interceptors, THAAD systems, SM-3s, and SM-6s. "We are rushing to triple the annual manufacturing capacity of some of the key weapons systems," McMaster said, but cautioned that the math is unforgiving: "We might have fired about one-fifth of our interceptor stockpile in three days."
Ferguson sharpened the point by connecting it to the broader Cold War II context. "We do not have an infinite supply of the precision weapons that are being used," he said. The Chinese, he argued, "are sitting thinking to themselves" about acting "when the United States has depleted its capabilities before they've been replaced."
McMaster pushed back on the notion that China should view this as an opening. "We still have a pretty significant amount, especially with this about 90 percent reduction in the launch rate," he said. But he acknowledged the deeper structural problem: "It does highlight the lack of depth in our industrial base." The US military, he warned, "assumed for way too long that we could just do one thing at a time. And what you're seeing now is how interconnected these theaters are."
Also read: Iran's "Exhaustion Trap": What Cheap Drones Mean for US-Israeli Interceptor Supplies