From “News Items” from @EllisItems ( “6. The US is running “dangerously low” on the key munitions used during the war against Iran, according to a Bloomberg Economics report published yesterday. The Pentagon’s stocks of hard-to-replace air defense interceptors are “critically low,” while long-range missile supplies are “under pressure,” Bloomberg Economics defense lead Becca Wasser and Courtney McBride said in an analysis. The report found the US has likely fired more than half of its most advanced Patriot variant — the PAC-3 MSE — and about 40% of its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense interceptors as the US defended itself against Iranian retaliatory attacks. The Pentagon also burned through various types of long distance, so-called stand-off strike missiles in the opening days of the war, with numbers of Precision Strike Missiles “likely exhausted,” as commanders tried to keep US troops out of harm’s way. “The US isn’t out of missiles, but it is running low on the right ones. And the choices that remain all come at a cost,” write Wasser and McBride. “The war has consumed important weapons faster than they can be bought and built. That is creating a generational gap in US stockpiles of air defense interceptors and exquisite long-range munitions that cannot be quickly overcome.” While US missile inventories are classified, the Bloomberg Economics report is based on Defense Department budget documents and public reporting on weapons stocks. It adds to a growing list of other evaluations highlighting the impact of the war on US weapons stocks. (Source: