War with Iran may affect air defense supplies to Ukraine: details
фото: Reuters
A potential escalation of the war with Iran could affect the supply of air defense systems to Ukraine due to limited ammunition supplies in the US. This primarily concerns interceptor missiles for the THAAD systems, which were actively used during the defense of Israel.
This is reported by the Financial Times.
As journalists note, the US and Israel exhausted their stockpiles of interceptors at an unprecedented rate during the 12-day war last year, when Iran fired hundreds of missiles at Israel.
The US military assesses the risk that possible new strikes by Tehran will complicate replenishment of supplies and affect not only support for Ukraine, but also Washington’s plans for potential conflicts with China or Russia.
A regional military official said the concern was the so-called “depth of inventory,” or the amount of ammunition available for THAAD systems. According to the newspaper’s sources, the US launched 150 of the missiles last year to defend Israel, while fewer than 650 have been ordered since 2010.
Stacey Pettyjohn, director of the defense program at the Center for a New American Security think tank, said that Washington could “easily” use up a “year’s supply” of critical munitions in 1-2 days of active operations if Iran carries out massive missile and drone launches.
“Both defensive and offensive munitions will be a critical factor that the Pentagon will highlight as one of the potential costs of a conflict with Iran,” said Stacey Pettyjohn.
At the same time, one of the officials noted that the probability of complete depletion of stocks during hostilities is small, but the need to preserve some of the missiles for other possible operations is being discussed.
Journalists recall that in April 2024, American, French, and British forces helped Israel repel hundreds of Iranian drones and missiles, but this time no such international coalition was formed.
Separately, the material draws attention to the saturation tactics used by Iran and its allies, simultaneously launching a large number of cheap missiles to overload air defense systems.
In addition, Vice Admiral Brendan McLain reported that by January 2025, the US had spent about 200 SM-2 and SM-6 missiles during the campaign against the Houthis in the Red Sea. It is also noted that US Navy ships are forced to return to port to reload missile launchers, as they cannot do so at sea.
Recall that on February 28, Israel launched preemptive strikes on Iran, as well as attacked Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon . A state of emergency was declared throughout the country.
It later emerged that the strikes on Iran were a joint operation between Israel and the United States . After that, US President Donald Trump confirmed that the United States had launched a military campaign in Iran .
The day before, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine urged citizens to refrain from traveling to Israel until the security situation stabilizes.
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