US seeking billions to replenish arms sent to support Israel: Report
Iran Press TV
Thursday, 21 August 2025 3:37 PM
The Pentagon is seeking $3.5 billion in emergency funds to replace weapons and military systems used to back Israel, according to reports citing budget documents.
The documents show the funds would be used to replenish interceptor missiles and cover other costs like radar maintenance, ship refurbishment, and munitions transportation, Bloomberg reported.
The allocation of funds for every listed item is categorized under an "emergency budget request."
The spending is described as necessary to make up for costs linked to the US army's responses to the "situation in [the occupied lands]," as well as operations "executed at the request of or in coordination with Israel to support the regime during [retaliatory operations] by Iran [or its allies]."
On June 13, Israel launched a blatant and unprovoked aggression against Iran, triggering a 12-day war that killed at least 1,064 people in the country, including military commanders, nuclear scientists, and ordinary civilians.
In response, hundreds of Iranian ballistic missiles and drones overwhelmed Israeli air defenses and struck key military, intelligence, industrial, energy, and R&D facilities across the occupied Palestinian territories, which managed to impose a halt to the illegal assault on June 24.
The request centers on missile interceptors fired since October 2023, including around $1 billion for RTX's SM-3 systems, which US Navy destroyers used in April 2024 against Iranian strikes.
Another $204 million is allocated for Lockheed Martin's THAAD interceptors.
The budget documents underscore the escalating expenses of the US military's footprint in West Asia and Washington's mounting anxiety over its capacity to resupply its own arsenals while continuing to provide weapons to Israel.
Since October 2023, Washington has burned through a significant number of interceptors in operations to back Israel and confront Yemen in the Red Sea, according to reports.
In October 2023, the US had approximately 9,100 SM-2, 400 SM-3, and 1,500 SM-6 interceptor missiles in stockpile.
The US has used 268 SM-2s, 159 SM-3s, and 280 SM-6s since then, including during the Israeli aggression against Iran in June 2025.
According to budget documents obtained by The War Zone, approximately a quarter of all funded THAAD interceptors—amounting to over 150 missiles—were expended in countering the Iranian missile barrage in June.
The number of interceptors deployed since October 2023 has cost Washington $1.8 billion, according to a 2024 report, an expense that could easily have been doubled by the end of June 2025.
In the latest US campaign against Yemen alone, which lasted from March until May, Washington burned through around $1 billion in munitions.
At the height of the Israeli aggression against Iran, WSJ reported that Israel was "running low" on interceptors. At the time, the source cited in the report said there was concern "about the US burning through interceptors as well."
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