The Persian Gulf countries are close to exhausting their supplies of Patriot missiles

After more than a month of war with Iran, countries located in the Persian Gulf region have almost exhausted their supplies of interceptor missiles for Patriot systems, the Bloomberg website reported.

Since February 28, when Israeli and U.S. attacks on Iran began and Tehran began responding with ballistic missile and drone strikes, countries in the Persian Gulf region have fired at least approximately 2,400 interceptor missiles. According to Bloomberg information published on Monday, this number is close to the pre-war stocks of Patriot missiles that these countries had – about 2,800 pieces. As noted, these estimates are based on publicly available data and expert opinions.

“Without U.S. support, most countries would be left without the ability to defend themselves against Iranian missiles,” Stimson Center expert Kelly Grieco said in a comment for Bloomberg.

So far, Iran has used about 1,200 ballistic missiles and over 4,000 missiles to attack Israel and military installations and countries in the region. Shahed or similar drones. THAAD and Patriot missiles are mainly used to shoot down ballistic missiles. Their stocks remain limited due to relatively low production: according to Lockheed Martin data, it amounts to 96 missiles for THAAD systems and 650 PAC-3 missiles for Patriot systems per year. The agreement signed in January assumes increasing the production of PAC-3 missiles to approximately 2,000. pieces per year by 2030

Limited resources of missiles that can intercept ballistic missiles are also a problem for other US allies – including Ukraine, for which Russian missile attacks remain a serious threat. (PAP)

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