The strikes reveal a deadly confluence of two important trends. First, Iran has become a more skilled adversary as the war has progressed, learning how to evade US air defences as it widened the battlefield to include most of the Middle East and enlisted allies such as the Houthis in Yemen and militias in Iraq.<\/p>\n
Second, the Pentagon\u2019s supply of interceptors has quickly dwindled, with the weapons becoming more precious each day of the off-and-on conflict.<\/p>\n
The two trends drive home a point that has slowly emerged in the months since the war started: that a global superpower with a mighty military footprint can still be held at bay by a lesser adversary willing to wage asymmetric warfare to find any advantage it can.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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The Pentagon has used more than 1500 Patriot interceptor missiles in the war and has fewer than 1700 interceptors left, according to two people briefed on the stockpile levels who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military details.<\/p>\n
The United States produced about 600 interceptors in all of 2025.<\/p>\n<\/p>\nThe US relies on its Patriot batteries to protect Gulf allies from Iranian missiles.<\/span>AP<\/span><\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe rapid depletion is occurring as Iranian forces study another war. In Ukraine, Russia has used combinations of ballistic and cruise missiles to distract Ukrainian air defences, and then rushed in drones.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Iranians are making it more difficult on air defences when you have a range of both missiles and drones coming in,\u201d said Seth Jones, president of the defence and security department at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cThey have effectively leveraged the Russian tactic to make it more difficult to protect across locations in the Gulf.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\nSince 2011, Iran has boasted of underground facilities across the country, as well as along the southern coast near the strategic Strait of Hormuz. <\/span>AP<\/span><\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nOn a single day during that deadly week last month, according to two US officials, American forces in the Middle East fired about 50 Patriot interceptors, which cost about $US4 million ($5.6 million) each.<\/p>\n
The Pentagon has continued to face a powerful threat, which it has tried to minimise, in the months since major combat ended in early April.<\/p>\n
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters on April 8 that Iran\u2019s missile program was \u201cfunctionally destroyed\u201d and that its launchers and missiles were \u201cdepleted and decimated and almost completely ineffective\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Most of Iran\u2019s missiles and launchers were stored in vast underground facilities that US and Israeli forces heavily bombed during the first five weeks of the war. But Iran dug out many of those sites and resumed firing, bringing shipping in the Strait of Hormuz to a near standstill and threatening US troops in the region.<\/p>\n