March 25, 2026

Low-cost alternatives to the multimillion-dollar missiles the U.S. is using in its war against Iran are still years away, key Pentagon officials said Tuesday, leaving the military reliant on high-cost munitions that are increasingly in short supply.

The U.S.-Israel campaign against Iran has burned through complex weapons that cannot be replaced quickly or affordably enough to maintain the Pentagon’s usual stockpiles. Military officials said at a Senate Armed Services Committee briefing that cheaper munitions are on the long-term horizon, but the U.S. industrial base still needs time to scale up to the Defense Department’s increasing needs.

The U.S. military is facing a critical shortage of high-cost missiles amid escalating operations against Iran, with low-cost alternatives still years away as officials warn that the industrial base must significantly expand to replenish dwindling stockpiles depleted by simultaneous support for Ukraine and Israel, highlighting urgent challenges in sustaining precision strike capabilities.

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