Key US weapons stockpiles remain significantly depleted and will come under even more intense pressure if strikes against Iran continue at the current rate, as President Donald Trump reiterated Friday that the ceasefire in the conflict is “over.”
The situation with armaments could impact the American military’s ability to fight a potential future war with China or even North Korea, experts told CNN.
“If the war continues at the rate it’s been going for the last [five] days … it would reduce stockpiles enough that there would be a new, higher level of risk … with the Indo-Pacific,” said Mark Cancian, a retired Marine Corps colonel and defense analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank.
The early phase of the Iran conflict, dubbed Operation Epic Fury, saw the US military expend thousands of key missiles used for long-range precision strikes and to defend against enemy air and missile attacks, according to analysts and previous CNN reporting.
Michael O’Hanlon, who leads foreign policy research at the Brookings Institution think tank, said there’s “no doubt” that stockpiles are “lower than we would prefer.”
