The U.S. and Israel undertook a mission known as Operation Epic Fury, targeting Iranian leadership and military sites Saturday. Its duration is still unclear, but the campaign may go on for days, according to U.S. officials.
Sustaining operations beyond the initial window presents a more complex challenge — one shaped by a “zero-sum” competition for missile defense inventories between the Middle East and Europe.
Officials and analysts warn that certain U.S. missile and air-defense interceptor inventories have been severely drawn down by the relentless pace of recent operations. The strategic dilemma for the Pentagon is that the systems required are the same ones being depleted by the defense of Ukraine and the ongoing protection of Israel.
Iran already has fired counterattacks near U.S. positions in Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Jordan, with several host governments saying their air defense systems intercepted incoming projectiles. No U.S. service member fatalities or injuries have been reported as of Saturday, a U.S. official told Fox News Digital.
U.S. authorities have not publicly released casualty figures or formal damage assessments.
During the intense June 2025 Iran–Israel conflict, U.S. forces fired more than 150 Terminal High Altitude Area Defense Interceptors — roughly a quarter of the total global inventory — and a large number of ship-based standard missiles to protect allies, according to published defense assessments.
This shortfall largely is attributed to the dual pressure of supplying Ukraine against Russian cruise missiles and the surge of batteries to the Middle East. Replenishing these high-end systems can take more than a year, analysts say, because production lines are optimized for peacetime and cannot be surged overnight.
Independent groups have noted the U.S. currently produces roughly 600–650 Patriot PAC-3 MSE missiles annually, reflecting recent contracts to boost production capacity. Analysts say that in a high-intensity war with a near-peer adversary like Iran — where multiple interceptors are often used to defeat a single incoming missile — even a years worth of production could be consumed in a matter of weeks, especially after recent drawdowns in Ukraine and the Middle East.
“The Department of War has everything it needs to execute any mission at the time and place of the Presidents choosing and on any timeline,” Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in response to readiness questions.
Retired Air Force Gen. Charles Wald, former deputy commander of U.S. European Command, said the United States retains the ability to surge conventional strike munitions into the region and draw from prepositioned stocks if a campaign is ordered.
“From a conventional munition standpoint, we can always fly in more weapons from around the world,” Wald told Fox News Digital. “There are a lot of weapons stored there with this type of mission in mind.”
The greater concern, he acknowledged, lies on the defensive side.
“The issue will be defensive weapons — Patriot, SM-3, and the Arrow system in Israel,” Wald said. “You can never have enough defense.”
Regional analysts caution that in a sustained missile exchange, interceptor inventories — not offensive strike weapons — could become the binding constraint.
“There is a limit to how many THAAD missiles can be used,” Israeli defense analyst Ehud Eilam said. “These are not systems you can reproduce overnight.”
Iran is believed to possess between 1,500 ballistic missiles and 2,000 ballistic missiles, as well as drones and shorter-range rockets capable of striking U.S. bases and Gulf energy infrastructure.
