Washington trying to replenish interceptor missile stocks used to defend Israel

(Patria) - The US military will need more than a year to replenish its stocks of interceptor missiles deployed last month to help Israel defend against Iranian ballistic missile attacks, according to a new report, Al Arabiya reported.

The cost of developing new interceptors for two batteries of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system could approach $2 billion, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Friday, citing US officials and defense analysts.

US officials said over 150 missiles were launched in response to Iranian attacks.

“That’s nearly a quarter of the interceptors the Pentagon has ever bought,” according to the Journal. Other types of interceptors were also deployed to protect Israel, including eighty SM-3 missiles.

In the past two years, the US military has also expended a significant number of munitions countering Houthi attacks in the Red Sea. That campaign continued until the Trump administration launched an offensive operation targeting Houthi leadership and weapons infrastructure in Yemen. Significant quantities of US interceptor missiles, including SM-2, SM-3, and SM-6 variants, were expended in those efforts.

Estimates for the cost of each are as follows: $2.1 million for SM-2, $3.9 million for SM-6, and $9.7 million for each SM-3 Block IB or $28 million for an SM-3 Block IIA. While Israel has its own multi-layered air defense system, heavily supported by the United States, it was running out of interceptors, US officials told the WSJ.

One US official reportedly said that if Iran decided to continue to throw missiles, drones, and rockets at Israel, Israel could easily exhaust its Arrow 3 interceptors. Israel uses the Arrow 2 and Arrow 3 systems to intercept medium and long-range ballistic missiles, as well as the David's Sling and Iron Dome for short-range rockets and projectiles.

Separately, the United States successfully repelled “the largest single Patriot missile attack in US military history” when Iran responded to US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites on the night of June 21 and launched a barrage of short- and medium-range ballistic missiles at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.

In its strikes on Iran, the United States fired a total of fourteen GBU-57, 13,668 kg bunker-buster bombs, and a US submarine launched over twenty Tomahawk cruise missiles.