The US defence department's inspector wide says the warfare with Iran has led to "shortfalls" successful munitions and a bottleneck successful resupply, contradicting President Donald Trump who has repeatly denied the US is facing shortages.
Trump has claimed US munitions supplies are "virtually unlimited" and said reporting different is "fake news".
But the autarkic watchdog said the US spent much than $22 cardinal connected munitions from February done June, starring to "strategic inventory shortfalls".
The BBC has contacted the White House for remark astir the discrepancy.
The caller study provides a first-of-its-kind, autarkic glimpse into US weapons stockpiles, information that is typically classified.
Previous estimates person painted a dire representation of the US shortages.
Over the people of the war, US forces person expended immense quantities of some long-range crushed onslaught systems and the aerial and rocket defences utilized to intercept incoming Iranian attacks.
A precocious July estimation from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, oregon CSIS, recovered that stocks of immoderate interceptors - specified arsenic the Patriot rocket and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, oregon THAAD - were importantly depleted, successful immoderate cases by much than half.
The inspector general's study did not disclose precisely however galore of the weapons remain.
It did, however, enactment the inventory shortfalls and uncover "industrial basal bottlenecks" for munitions resupply.
The study added that the defence section is present moving to "streamline procurement processes and accumulation pb times" to code the shortages and "respond rapidly to a contingency".
Trump and different medication officials person sought to formed reports of shortages arsenic mendacious and "treasonous".
In a 4 August X post, for example, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth described quality reporting connected the shortages arsenic "not true".
And successful a lengthy Truth Social station connected 3 September, Trump claimed that the US had "virtually unlimited" amounts of ammunition and is "stockpiling and preparing for immoderate contingency that could happen".
The watchdog's study besides notes that instrumentality losses person totaled $3.7bn, with different $7.4bn successful different expenditures. Overall, the US spent $33.4bn (£24.7bn) connected the warfare from 28 Feb to 30 Jun.
Among the losses person been 4 F-15e combatant jets, a highly precocious F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and 30 MQ-9 drones destroyed successful "various circumstances".
When US and Israeli strikes began, Trump repeatedly said that the struggle would beryllium implicit wrong weeks.
More recently, helium said the struggle mightiness not extremity until "right after" the November midterm elections successful the US.
Polls amusement that the warfare is unpopular among Americans.
One Reuters/Ipsos canvass released successful aboriginal September recovered that lone 23% of Americans - and lone fractional of Republicans - judge the US to beryllium successful a stronger presumption with Iran compared with earlier hostilities broke out.
English (US)·