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The United States reportedly expended roughly half of its entire inventory of Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptor missiles to defend Israel during the conflict with Iran. The large drawdown of air-defense munitions has raised security concerns among U.S. allies in Asia\u2014particularly South Korea\u2014which face threats from North Korea and China. <\/p>\n
On the 23rd, foreign outlets reported that the Washington Post, citing an internal Pentagon assessment, said the U.S. launched more than 200 THAAD interceptors to protect Israel. That figure amounts to nearly half of the U.S. military\u2019s global THAAD stockpile. <\/p>\n
Separately, U.S. forces fired more than 100 SM-3 and SM-6 interceptors from ships in the eastern Mediterranean near Israel. By contrast, Israel used roughly 100 Arrow interceptors and about 90 David\u2019s Sling interceptors. <\/p>\n
Kelly Grico, a senior researcher at the Stimson Center, called the numbers \u201cshocking,\u201d saying the U.S. took on most of the missile-defense mission while Israel conserved its own ammunition. She warned that even if the deployments made tactical sense, the U.S. is now left with about 200 THAAD missiles and production lines cannot keep up with demand. That shortfall, she said, could force the U.S. to pay the price on other battlefields, including in Asia. <\/p>\n
The Washington Post reported that the depletion has unnerved allies in Asia, singling out South Korea and Japan\u2014both heavily reliant on U.S. extended deterrence against North Korea and China\u2014as directly affected. As the U.S.-Iran conflict shows signs of dragging on, the U.S. government has reportedly already moved, or plans to move, some THAAD assets deployed at the U.S. base in Seongju, North Gyeongsang Province, to the Middle East, heightening concerns about a security gap on the Korean Peninsula. <\/p>\n
The coverage also detected strains between Washington and Jerusalem. While officials publicly emphasize strong cooperation and Israel\u2019s multilayered air defenses, the Pentagon assessment exposes a \u201cserious imbalance\u201d in the defense burden, the Post said. <\/p>\n
With cease-fire talks between the U.S. and Iran stalled, Israel\u2014dissatisfied with the proposals under discussion\u2014has urged a resumption of military operations. U.S. officials, already grappling with dwindling munitions, have reportedly pushed back against that pressure. <\/p>\n
A U.S. government official told the Post, \u201cIsrael cannot conduct or win this war on its own, but no one knows that\u2014because they don\u2019t see what\u2019s happening behind the scenes: the U.S.\u2019s full support.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The U.S. has deployed half of its THAAD missile defense system to protect Israel during its conflict with Iran, straining resources against North Korea and China.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_thumbnail_url":"https:\/\/cdn-union.tenbizt.com\/contents\/crawler-dev\/thumbnail\/2026\/05\/CP-2023-0299\/thumb-20a6655e-916d-43c7-84bc-9a62fbc26e5d.jpg","footnotes":""},"categories":[278104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-261648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-military"],"yoast_head":"\n