The US war with Iran has led to a shortage of key munitions, which has in turn exposed “bottlenecks” in the defense industry, the War Department’s Office of Inspector General confirmed in a report released Monday.
The 44-page document specified that “production of solid rocket motors, the availability of high-grade explosives and propellants and the recruitment of skilled manufacturing labor” are the biggest logistical issues plaguing Operation Epic Fury, launched by the US against Tehran Feb. 28.
The Trump administration, led by the president and War Secretary Pete Hegseth, has routinely denied claims that the military is running low on weapons, saying the US has all the materiel needed to fight any conflict.
However, experts have previously said it will take about three years for military contractors to replenish advanced missiles and defensive missile interceptors to prewar levels.
On Monday, President Trump insisted on Truth Social: “I’ve just received a Report that the United States is producing more Exquisite and Elite Weapons than at any time in our History.
“They are being delivered on a daily basis to our Forces in the Middle East, and beyond,” Trump added. “Our Defense Company Factories are moving 24/7, while at the same time building, on average, 4 to 5 largescale brand new Plants, each! A primary focus of this production has been Patriots, THAAD Systems, Tomahawks, and other Standard Missile Systems, of which we already have large numbers in stock.”
Monday’s congressionally mandated report, which also included input from the inspectors general for the State Department and the US Agency for International Development, estimated the cost of the first four months of the war to be $33.4 billion, not including money spent on infrastructure repairs — the first official accounting of the war’s price tag through June 30.
The document also acknowledged that Iranian strikes damaged and destroyed hundreds of buildings and other structures at US bases in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman and Jordan.
American diplomatic facilities in Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the UAE were also damaged by Iranian strikes, to an estimated tune of $184 million.
After Naval Support Activity Bahrain, home of the US Fifth Fleet, was struck by drones and ballistic missiles early in the war, the report confirmed US Central Command had to shift to supply lines at alternate hubs that were much farther away, including the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia.
The inspectors general noted that “14- to 18-day logistics cycles” were now required to support operations in the Middle East.
Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao acknowledged in an interview with The Epoch Times last week that Iran “blew the hell out of Bahrain” and he has a task force looking into whether the Navy would need to repair the base to sustain its forces in the region.
Dozens of American aircraft and drones also were destroyed or damaged by Iran, including the destruction of as many as 30 MQ-9 Reaper drones that cost around $30 million apiece, the report said. Seven KC-135 refueling aircraft were damaged or destroyed, including five that were struck by Iranian munitions while on the ground in Saudi Arabia.
A total of 11 service members are listed as “killed in action” in Kuwait, Iraq, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, while seven more — the six-person crew of a KC-135 that crashed in Iraq following a collision with another KC-135 and the pilot of a helicopter that crashed into the Arabian Sea — are described as non-hostile deaths.
With Post wires
