US Israeli military operations against Iran are continuing, amid an escalating debate in Washington about whether the United States can sustain a war that could drag on. The dispute centres on questions over the adequacy of American weapons stockpiles, particularly advanced air defence systems.
This comes alongside reports and analyses warning that the rapid depletion of munitions across more than one front could place Washington’s arsenal under unprecedented strain, even as the US administration insists its military superiority can decide the battle within weeks.
In this context, Al Jazeera’s Washington correspondent Nasser Al Husseini said the US administration is showing a high degree of confidence in the trajectory of the military campaign. He noted that Defence Department officials have stressed that the United States and Israel effectively control Iranian airspace.
This messaging is presented as part of justifying the decision to go to war. The White House has repeatedly stated that President Donald Trump did not decide to strike Iran suddenly, but only after concluding that Tehran represented a growing threat to the United States in the near future.
Al Husseini added, however, that the real military challenge facing US forces is not air superiority, but Iran’s ability to operate mobile missile launch platforms that are difficult to detect or destroy quickly.
US military leadership says destroying these platforms has become a priority within current operations, with Washington arguing that eliminating them would undermine Iran’s ability to continue launching long range missiles at Israel and at US bases in the region.
Amid this debate, Pentagon leaders have denied any crisis in ammunition reserves. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine said the United States has sufficient military capacity to continue operations without constraints.
A real concern
Field and political indicators, however, suggest the question of military stockpiles is a genuine concern within Washington’s decision making circles. This, Al Husseini said, helps explain the accelerated moves to boost defence manufacturing output.
He reported that President Trump intends to hold a meeting at the White House with senior executives from arms manufacturing companies to discuss ways of speeding up the production of advanced weapons, most notably precision missiles and Tomahawk missiles.
In the same context, Reuters cited informed sources saying the expected meeting will include major firms such as Lockheed Martin and RTX, the parent company of Raytheon, as part of a government push to increase production tempo and replenish munitions consumed in recent military operations.
Observers believe these pressures are not linked to the current war alone, but reflect strategic accumulation from previous years, especially after the extensive military support the United States provided to Ukraine since the outbreak of the war with Russia in 2022.
Military operations linked to Israel’s war on Gaza have also consumed an additional portion of the American arsenal, including artillery systems, anti tank missiles, and various types of advanced munitions.
With Washington now entering a direct confrontation with Iran, the rate of use of these strategic stockpiles is rising, prompting some media reports to warn that they could be depleted if the war continues for an extended period.
The UK newspaper The Times warned that the current war is extremely costly, even for the vast US defence budget, estimated at around one trillion dollars for 2026.
The paper argued that the central concern for military planners is maintaining sufficient stocks of advanced weapons to fight a short or medium duration war without placing strategic reserves at risk.
Under these estimates, a war lasting four or five weeks, the time frame referenced by President Trump, could lead to the depletion of some key systems on which military operations depend.
Miscalculation
While the US administration maintains it can sustain the war, some experts believe the issue is not only American capability, but also the assessment of Iranian military strength.
Al Husseini said a number of observers and strategists outside the administration question Washington’s reading of Iran’s capabilities, arguing it may be less accurate than the United States assumes.
They believe the United States and Israel may not have fully grasped the scale of Iran’s development in missiles and drones, which could prolong the confrontation.
For its part, Tehran says Washington’s military calculations are wrong, and that Iran has prepared for years for a long war based on attrition and shifting military tactics.
Hamid Reza Moghaddam Far, adviser to the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, told Al Jazeera Net that Iran, unlike the United States and Israel, is prepared for a prolonged confrontation. He said the passage of time could work in Iran’s favour in terms of military gains.
He added that Iranian operations have, in his words, revealed weaknesses in opponents’ defences, claiming Tehran has been able to strike military sites, air bases, and strategic radars.
Since Saturday morning, Israel and the United States have been carrying out a military attack on Iran that has killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, prominent security and military figures, and civilians. Iran has responded by launching missile salvos and drones towards Israel and what it says are US bases in Gulf countries, though some strikes have caused damage to civilian facilities, including airports, ports, and various buildings.
This platform runs on funding from the Ummah.
