FT: US exhausted ammunition reserves calculated for 'years' in two weeks of war with Iran
The US armed forces exhausted ammunition reserves calculated for 'years' in two weeks of war with Iran. Sources told the Financial Times. According to them, this includes American long-range Tomahawk missiles. One of the newspaper's interlocutors called the expenditure on these munitions 'enormous' and added that the US army will feel it 'for several years.' In the first 100 hours of the war with Iran, American forces expended 168 Tomahawk missiles, according to data from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). The cost of each is $3.6 million. In recent years, the US army has purchased only 322 missiles. The war also affected the stocks of shells for Patriot and Thaad systems, while Iran mainly uses cheap Shahed drones, noted Democratic Senator and US Air Force veteran Mark Kelly. According to the Financial Times, earlier this week the Pentagon informed senators that the first six days of the war with Iran cost more than $11 billion. The vast majority of these expenses were for ammunition. It is expected that in the coming days, the American military department will send a request to Congress for an additional military funding of $50 billion, the material states. At the same time, representatives of the Trump administration did not speak of a shortage of ammunition. On the contrary, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated on March 12 that the US armed forces have 'more than enough' ammunition and weapons to 'achieve the goals' of the operation against Iran set by the president. Before that, on March 5, Pentagon chief Pete Hegset said that the US has enough ammunition to continue bombing 'infinitely.'
