The US military operation against Iran has pushed American stocks of long-range precision missiles close to exhaustion. Reuters reported, citing its sources, that the sharpest decline affected ATACMS and PrSM surface-to-surface weapons, with Washington using almost its entire available reserve.

Analysts estimate that each of these missiles costs more than $1 million. The Pentagon has also fired roughly half of its Tomahawk cruise missile inventory, according to one person familiar with the figures.

American air defense arsenals have come under similar pressure. Calculations by the Center for Strategic and International Studies indicate that US forces launched more than 1,500 Patriot missiles and about 200 THAAD interceptors during the confrontation with Iran. The scale of their use has left the country facing a significant shortage of air defense ammunition.

Strikes on Iran resumed overnight on July 8. Washington linked the renewed attacks to assaults on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran described the US operation as a breach of earlier agreements and retaliated against American facilities across the Middle East.

The latest escalation erupted only three weeks after the two sides signed a memorandum intended to end the conflict.