The United States has formally notified Japan that delivery of 400 Tomahawk cruise missiles will be significantly delayed. The reason: Washington needs to replenish its own stockpiles first, after burning through a staggering number of missiles during military operations against Iran.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivered the news directly to Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi during a meeting in May 2026. The original timeline called for the first batch to arrive in April 2028. That date could now slip by up to two additional years.
Japan signed a $2.35 billion contract in 2024 for these missiles specifically to build counterstrike capabilities against China and North Korea. Japan’s deal was structured as two batches of 200 missiles each. The contract was designed to give Japan long-range strike capability it hasn’t possessed since 1945.
What Operation Epic Fury consumed
The US military reportedly expended over 850 Tomahawk missiles during the early stages of its conflict with Iran, an operation dubbed “Operation Epic Fury.” To put that in perspective, Japan’s entire order of 400 missiles represents less than half of what the US fired off in the opening phase alone.
