The US war with Iran has triggered shortages of critical munitions, exposing major “bottlenecks” across the defense industry, according to a report released Monday by the War Department’s Office of Inspector General.
The 44-page report identified three central logistical challenges affecting Operation Epic Fury, the US campaign against Tehran launched Feb. 28: production of solid rocket motors, access to high-grade explosives and propellants, and the recruitment of skilled manufacturing workers.
The Trump administration, including President Trump and War Secretary Pete Hegseth, has repeatedly rejected claims that the military is running short of weapons, maintaining that the US has sufficient materiel for any conflict.
Defense experts, however, have previously estimated that military contractors could need roughly three years to restore supplies of advanced missiles and defensive interceptors to prewar levels.
Trump pushed back against those concerns Monday in a post on Truth Social, writing: “I’ve just received a Report that the United States is producing more Exquisite and Elite Weapons than at any time in our History.
“They are being delivered on a daily basis to our Forces in the Middle East, and beyond,” Trump added. “Our Defense Company Factories are moving 24/7, while at the same time building, on average, 4 to 5 largescale brand new Plants, each! A primary focus of this production has been Patriots, THAAD Systems, Tomahawks, and other Standard Missile Systems, of which we already have large numbers in stock.”
The congressionally mandated report, which also incorporated findings from inspectors general at the State Department and the US Agency for International Development, put the cost of the war’s first four months at $33.4 billion. The estimate, covering expenses through June 30, excludes infrastructure repair costs and represents the first official accounting of the conflict’s price tag.
The report also documented damage to or destruction of hundreds of buildings and other structures at US bases in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman and Jordan following Iranian strikes.
Iranian attacks additionally damaged US diplomatic facilities in Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, causing an estimated $184 million in losses.
After drones and ballistic missiles struck Naval Support Activity Bahrain, home to the US Fifth Fleet, early in the war, US Central Command was forced to reroute supplies through alternative hubs much farther away. Those locations included Diego Garcia, an island in the Indian Ocean.
Inspectors general said the shift had extended logistics cycles supporting US operations in the Middle East to between 14 and 18 days.
Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao told The Epoch Times last week that Iran “blew the hell out of Bahrain.” He said he had formed a task force to assess whether the Navy must repair the base in order to continue sustaining forces in the region.
The report said dozens of US aircraft and drones were destroyed or damaged, including as many as 30 MQ-9 Reapers valued at approximately $30 million each. Seven KC-135 refueling aircraft were also damaged or destroyed, five of them after Iranian munitions struck the planes while they were on the ground in Saudi Arabia.
Eleven service members were listed as “killed in action” in Kuwait, Iraq, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Seven others were recorded as non-hostile deaths: six members of a KC-135 crew killed when the aircraft crashed in Iraq after colliding with another KC-135, and a helicopter pilot who died in a crash in the Arabian Sea.
The State Department reported in early June that its additional conflict-related costs totaled $113 million. Nearly $80 million of that amount covered contingency responses, including evacuations for US personnel and their families, along with other American citizens and eligible third-country nationals.
Since the start of the war, the Trump administration evacuated about 9,000 US citizens from countries in the Middle East and Europe. Through private and commercial flights as well as land and water travel, the cost of the department’s evacuation operation was more than $11 million as of late June.
The majority of the evacuations were made from Israel, with Iraq and Jordan following shortly behind. While the US only evacuated 1,200 Americans from the United Arab Emirates, those trips to Istanbul, Athens and Washington cost the most, at more than $4 million.
With Post wires
