Sources Say U.S. Army Nearly Exhausted Two Long-Range Missile Inventories
The U.S. military says its arsenal remains deep. Yet three people familiar with inventory data told Reuters that five months of war with Iran have consumed much of the Army’s supply of two important long-range weapons. Two characterized the combined use of Army Tactical Missile Systems, or ATACMS, and Precision Strike Missiles, or PrSM, as “virtually all” that was available.
That description is not an official inventory count. The people did not disclose how many missiles remain, and no supporting figures were made public. A fourth person said Central Command had nearly exhausted the land-based missiles it held before the war but received replacements transferred from U.S. stocks elsewhere. That distinction matters: a regional command running low is not necessarily the same as the entire U.S. inventory reaching zero.
The readiness concern is nevertheless concrete. ATACMS and PrSM give Army launchers a long-range precision-strike option without requiring pilots to fly over heavily defended territory. If available rounds have fallen as sharply as reported, planners have fewer of those weapons immediately at hand for another major crisis involving China, Russia or another adversary.
A replacement cycle complicates replenishment
The Army is not simply trying to restart production of one mature missile. It is moving between generations. ATACMS is being phased out as manufacturing shifts toward PrSM, the newer replacement. That transition can improve the Army’s future capability, but it also leaves replenishment tied to a production line that is still building volume while the outgoing weapon recedes.
PrSM inventories were low before the reported drawdown because the missile is relatively new. The military has ordered a large number for 2027, but orders scheduled for a future year do not equal rounds available today. Missile manufacturing also depends on sustained supplies of propulsion, electronics, structures and other specialized components, along with testing and acceptance capacity. Those constraints prevent an inventory from being restored as quickly as conventional factory output might suggest.
A March analysis from the Center for Strategic and International Studies estimated that the United States had used about half of its initial PrSM inventory, not virtually all of the combined ATACMS and PrSM supply. Readers can inspect the CSIS analysis, which argues that years of peacetime production planning, industrial consolidation and procurement trade-offs left limited surge capacity across several munition categories.
The two assessments cannot be reconciled from the public numbers. They may use different dates, definitions of available inventory or treatment of missiles assigned to particular commands. Without separate remaining counts for ATACMS and PrSM, it would be unsound to calculate a precise depletion percentage. “Virtually all” should therefore remain an attributed description rather than a confirmed Pentagon total.
Pressure extends beyond Army strike missiles
The wider production problem is visible in air and missile defense. CSIS estimated that roughly 65% of the initial Patriot interceptor inventory was expended between February and July and that the THAAD interceptor inventory was at least 38% below its prewar level. Two people familiar with U.S. data told Reuters that those estimates matched internal figures. Another person said slightly less than half of the global Tomahawk inventory had been used, but Reuters could not independently verify that figure.
The Pentagon has moved to expand selected parts of the missile-defense supply chain, with framework agreements intended to triple Patriot interceptor production capacity and quadruple THAAD interceptor capacity. The measures include additional sources or output for components such as solid rocket motors, ignition safety devices and structural assemblies. Raytheon, an RTX business, also reached a tentative multiyear Pentagon agreement intended to increase Tomahawk production.
Those actions show how replenishment is increasingly being treated as an industrial-capacity problem rather than only a question of placing larger orders. Factories need tooling, qualified workers, component suppliers and predictable multiyear demand before they can sustain higher rates. Lockheed Martin builds ATACMS, PrSM and THAAD, while Raytheon produces Tomahawk missiles and Patriot interceptors; neither company immediately answered Reuters’ questions about supply levels.
The White House and Pentagon dispute the implication that the United States lacks what it needs for military operations. President Donald Trump said the country has “far more than we need” and that defense companies are producing at record levels. Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said the military maintains “a deep arsenal of capabilities.” Those assurances address the overall force, however, while the reported constraint concerns two specific Army weapons during a difficult production transition. The next meaningful measure will be how quickly 2027 PrSM orders become accepted missiles in operational inventory not simply how many are placed on contract.
By David Whitaker — Associate editor for AMI’s aerospace and drone systems desk, translating flight systems, aircraft programs, spaceflight, and UAV developments into accessible technical stories.
