The U.S. has fired 850 Tomahawk missiles in four weeks, raising concerns about stockpiles and readiness for future wars.
According to reports, the United States has fired over 850 Tomahawk cruise missiles in just four weeks during its operation in Iran. This could be putting unsustainable levels of consumption on stockpiles, officials have explained to the press.
Unsurpringly, this has alarmed some in the Pentagon who are now scrambling to find ways to increase production or find ways to replenish stock. This is especially the case with the Department of War , which is increasingly anxious about potential high-end conflict scenarios in other theatres like the Pacific, The War Zone reports.“The Pentagon has tracked the number of Tomahawks used with an increasing focus on what the burn rate will mean for not only a sustained campaign against Iran but for future military operations as well,” unnamed “officials” told the Washington Post .Tomahawk missiles, in case you are unaware, are long-range cruise missiles capable of hitting targets at ranges of between 621 miles and 994 miles . They cruise at subsonic speeds of around 0.74 Mach and are guided using a combination of satellites , inertial navigation , terrain contour mapping , DSMAC, and active radar. US burning through Tomahawk stocksFirst produced in 1983, they are extremely precise munitions able to hit various targets, from specific buildings to individual military targets. Variants exist that can be fired from land or sea, and they tend to be deployed early in conflicts to knock out key targets without risking manned aircraft.This could include things like air defense systems, radar systems, command centers, airfields, and missile launch sites. To this end, they tend to be used to “soften up” a nation’s defenses to make air operations safer. The exact number of Tomahawk missiles in the US reserves is obviously a closely guarded secret, but it is known that these missiles are expensive and time-consuming to fabricate. That said, The Post seems to suggest that the US likely had between 4,000 and 4,500 missiles at the start of “Operation Epic Fury.”If true, then the US likely now has between 3,150 and 3,650 left. That is an estimated 20% to 30% drop in stock in just one month. As you can appreciate, that is a very fast burn rate, and one that needs to be managed.What’s more, only a few hundred or so can be made each year, meaning that at the current rate of consumption, stocks could become dangerously low if the US isn’t careful. Each missile takes around 2 years to build, and costs betwen $1.5 million and $3.6M apiece .That translates to many years to replace the 850 consumed by the Iran War. Reports of pre-war limited batch purchases are also compounding the problem.Slow down or run outAccording to The Post, only around 57 missiles were acquired in last year’s defense budget for the US Navy. According to TWZ, the Trump Administration is on record claiming that munition stockpiles are at healthy levels and there is nothing to worry about.The US “has more than enough munitions, ammo, and weapons stockpiles to achieve the goals of ‘Operation Epic Fury’ laid out by President Trump — and beyond,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said earlier this month.However, if The Post is accurate in its reporting, the opposite could be closer to the truth. Modern wars, like Ukraine and now Iran, tend to burn through munitions at an industrial rate.Precision missiles, artillery shells, drones, and air defense missiles are usually expended much faster than initially anticipated. In Ukraine, for example, defense forces quickly exhausted Javelin missiles and consumed huge levels of artillery shells in a matter of months. Russia is also running low on its stocks of shells and precision missiles very quickly. The same could now also be true for American Tomahawks if they are not careful.
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