Donald Trump // © AP Photo / Jacquelyn Martin
“U.S. President Donald Trump’s dissatisfaction with the course of the war with Iran led to a sharp exchange at Camp David last week: he demanded that Defense Secretary Pete Hegset explain why he had apparently been misled about a serious ammunition shortage that now threatens to limit U.S. military capabilities against Iran,” the newspaper reports.
According to the publication, Trump stated that he had believed the ammunition shortage issue had already been resolved, but was then confronted with information about a shortage of long-range guided missiles and air defense systems. According to the newspaper’s sources, it was precisely this shortage of weapons that became one of the reasons why the president refrained from launching new large-scale strikes against Iran in recent days.
During a meeting at Camp David, Hegset, according to the newspaper’s sources, rejected Trump’s claims and blamed the situation on his deputy, Steven Fineberg, stating that Fineberg had failed to provide the president with complete information about the state of the stockpiles.
Late last week, the Pentagon requested an additional $67 billion from Congress to cover expenses related to the war with Iran and to replenish weapons stockpiles, some of which, according to CNN and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), had reached critically low levels.
Earlier, CSIS estimated that during the standoff with Iran from February 27 to July 27, the U.S. used between 1,500 and 1,600 Patriot missiles and about 200 THAAD interceptors. As a result, Patriot stockpiles fell from 2,300 to approximately 760–830 units, and the THAAD arsenal decreased from 452 to 234–278 missiles, leading to a significant shortage of air defense capabilities.
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