The US has used half of several of its key offensive and defensive armaments in its illegal, Israel-driven war on Iran. And it faces waits of years to replenish its stocks — with real risk of running out completely, according to the new analysis from CNN. Several other key munitions are also heavily depleted.
The impact of the US-Israel war of aggression was summarised by US defence journalist John Donnelly:
Approximate estimates of percentages of U.S. munitions expended in Iran war, per @CNN :
50% THAAD interceptors
50% Patriot interceptors
45% Precision Strike Missiles
30% Tomahawk missiles
20% Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles
20% Standard Missiles (SM-3 and SM-6) https://t.co/1A9TH0zpr5— John M. Donnelly (@johnmdonnelly) April 21, 2026
This will mean huge profits for US defence contractors and huge losses for American taxpayers, but it will take four years or more to return stocks to pre-war levels, even if no more were used from now:
NEW: In the 39-day campaign before the Iran ceasefire, U.S. forces heavily used the 7 munitions below. For 4 of them, the U.S. may have expended over 50% of its prewar inventory. Rebuilding to prewar levels will take up to 4 years.
More from @CSISDefense: https://t.co/YI0OuYmd5d pic.twitter.com/DUtmbGpwYe
— CSIS (@CSIS) April 22, 2026
Even after expending so many of its weapons, the US has not come even close to breaking Iran, which continues to control the Strait of Hormuz and has forced the US to evacuate many of its regional bases. Unlike the US, Iran reportedly has huge remaining stocks of its own armaments to use on its attackers and their enablers — and has added vital communications cables running through Hormuz to its target list if it is further attacked.
The Iranians are calling Trump’s bluff by refusing his unrealistic ‘deal’ of capitulation to Israel, while continuing to flex their own muscles and mock him. It is anything but a given that US military stocks will not soon be even lower — still without getting close to achieving whatever aims Trump thinks he has.
Featured image via the Canary













According to the FT 50% of the USA discretionary budget is on the military so feeding the arms companies – The Merchants of Death – plays a big part in USA economy & politics as their donations also buy Republicans & Democrats politicians.
‘If we could build peace and co-operation between ALL countries.
The arms industry would go bust.
Millions of lives would be saved.
As weapons turned to rust.’
Those damn arms companies have products to shift and apparently since 1945 the USA has bombed 75 countries, that’s about 35% of the counties on the Earth and interestingly they are overwhelmingly non-white.
And if we managed to build global peace some would argue the US economy & other countries too would crash. ☮️❤️⚖️