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European officials speaking with Bloomberg suggested that it’s unlikely US allies will receive any shipments of key weapon systems within the next 5 years.
Though not a leak, it’s indicative of what some Pentagon officials have been telling US news agencies of late: that the aggression against Iran which started back in February has depleted stocks of sophisticated and long-lead armaments.
Reuters reported on August 4th that the US had used ‘virtually all’ of its long-range precision missiles in her stockpiles. On the 27th, AP reported that European forces were facing a “beyond critical” shortage key defensive Patriot missiles. On September 6th, the LA Times interviewed an author of a study published by national security thinktank Center for Strategic and International Studies, who said the US was facing a “generational annihilation” of Patriot and the even more sophisticated THAAD interceptor missiles. The Pentagon declined to confirm or comment on the study.
Believed to be a result of all these reports, the Pentagon took measures to reduce information on weapons stockpiles from reaching the press. According to CBS, “dozens” of military officials were required to sit for polygraph, or “lie detector” tests in an effort to control leaks making it to the media. On September 2nd, the Washington Post broke the story that the Pentagon had pulled decades of classified documents from the Secretary of Defense Orders Book, ironically according to anonymous sources familiar with the situation.
The book “details the location and availability of US warships, military units, weapons systems, and other resources,” and may have been the source of some of the leaks. The sources weren’t sure whether the documents were purged or just moved from “secret” to higher levels of classification.
The end of it all was that Pentagon officials did eventually state to the DoD inspector general that the war on Iran had resulted “in strategic inventory shortfalls and revealed industrial base bottlenecks for munitions resupply,” confirming what most of the outlets had reported.
Felt around the world
The latest addition in this saga comes now from Bloomberg, which spoke with European officials who said that multiple nations were now being advised that delivery times for US-made weaponry were being extended beyond previous deadlines. The delays relate to “key missile and air defense capabilities,” and German defense officials have reportedly had to “urge” their counterparts in Washington to speed up deliveries of the long-range Tomahawk cruise missile and the ground-based Typhon launcher.
The Tomahawk would be considered one of the “long-range precision missile” systems referenced in the Reuters report. Raytheon, the American weapons firm which manufacturers the Tomahawk, has allegedly pushed back delivery dates 5 years. Earlier this year, Japan was told that outstanding orders for Tomahawk missiles would be pushed back 2 years.
“Eastern European nations” not named in the Bloomberg report have also supposedly had shipments delayed since the surprise attack on Tehran.
The decision comes as US President Trump is supposedly considering “whether or not to blow up the entire nation,” of Iran, which regardless of its merits would be a decision that could only deepen these strategic shortages.
Around the world, power centers which have long-relied on US weapons are feeling the absence. In South Korea, WaL reported that decisions to transfer substantial numbers of Patriot missile systems may have left the country more eager to restore dialogue with the North. On the Arabian Peninsula, President Trump admitted he’d been in talks with Ansar Allah, and his position is that Washington will not get involved in the ongoing civil war in Yemen, regardless of how much it spills over onto the Saudis.
This by nature would suggest that requests for replacement munitions by Saudi Arabia will have been, if not denied, than at least delayed. If Japanese, Saudi, and European allies are receiving delay notices for weapons shipments, it seems unlikely that any other Gulf countries will be getting any missile interceptors anytime soon. Taiwan weapon shipments have reportedly been delayed, but because of President Xi Jinping’s upcoming visit to the US.
Ukraine, which arguably needs them more than any other US ally, hasn’t quite managed to convince the US to deliver the goods, and the Bloomberg report stated that EU leaders are expected to push hard for replacement Patriot missile supplies for Kyiv this week at the UN General Assembly meeting. They are also expected to push for European companies to be granted licenses to built Patriot missil stocks in Europe.
Trump earlier this week told reporters that this latter option was something he was considering, as well as sending Ukraine a “far less sophisticated version” of the Patriot system. WaL
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PICTURED ABOVE: A Tomahawk cruise missile launches from a US warship. PC: US Navy.
