Washington Post: Israel will run out of anti-aircraft missiles in less than 2 weeks
The Washington Post (USA) reported that at the current rate of intercepting missile attacks from Iran, Israel's air defense system could run out of missiles in less than two weeks without significant additional supplies from the US or direct involvement from Washington.
The report comes as Tehran has carried out a series of drone and missile attacks on Israel. The attacks were in response to Israel's airstrikes on Iran last Friday, an action Tel Aviv called "preventive" to prevent the Islamic Republic from developing a nuclear bomb.
US forces are believed to be assisting Israel in intercepting the missiles. US President Donald Trump said Washington could join Israel's air campaign but had not made a final decision. Iran, for its part, warned that any US involvement would lead to "irreparable" damage.
According to an article in the Washington Post on June 17, intercepting Iranian missiles and UAVs is costing Israel a huge amount of money. Israeli media estimated that the cost of missile defense could be up to 285 million USD per night.
Citing an unnamed source, the newspaper said that at the current pace of Iranian attacks, Israel could only maintain its current level of air defenses for about 10 to 12 days without renewed supplies from the United States or deeper involvement by American forces. The source added that Israel may have to start rationing its air defense missile use as early as this weekend.
"They will have to choose which targets to intercept," the Washington Post quoted the source as saying. "The system is overloaded."
Israel has a multi-layered air defense shield with several different systems, but relies primarily on the Arrow system to shoot down Iran's heavy ballistic missiles. Israeli missile expert Tal Inbar said Israel's famous "Iron Dome" system, while effective against Hamas rockets, is ineffective against Iran's heavy ballistic missiles.
Dan Caldwell, a former senior Pentagon adviser, said Israel's Arrow and David's Sling units likely used up many of their interceptors in response to attacks from Houthi and Iranian forces earlier this year. He noted that the missiles are expensive and take a long time to produce.
"Therefore, it is likely that Israel and the US will soon have to start rationing the use of their interceptor missiles (if they have not already done so)," the former defense official wrote on social network X on June 17.
The situation became more tense when, since June 18, President Trump has repeatedly demanded that Tehran "surrender unconditionally", boasted that the US has the right to control Iran's airspace and implied that assassinating Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei would be "easy".
In response, Tehran said it would "not bow to anyone in the face of coercion" and threatened to retaliate against any attack.
