US Patriot missile stocks in Europe are 'beyond critical' due to Iran war

The full title is:

> US Patriot missile stocks in Europe are ‘beyond critical’ due to Iran war, officials say

electroweak a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Despite four years of close observation and support of the war on Ukraine the message from the Iran conflict is that the US has not learned a thing about how to efficiently fight a war against drones.

	▲	nojvek a day ago \| parent [-]
		The lower the stock, the higher next year’s military budget. Military complex loves having a bigger budget every year. Social security solvency be damned. I think the lessons have been learnt well. Just not the ones that serve average American.

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netsharc a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

And they're also wrecking shipfuls of seamen...

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anovikov 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

German plant to produce them is about to come online in weeks and reach full production in a year so there's no reason to worry.

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bigyabai 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

The Iran war could escalate in under a year. The US produces ~1.6 MIM-104s per-day; Some 224 MIM-104s/day were expended in the opening days of the conflict.

I'd say there are arithmetically reasonable causes for worry.

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anovikov a day ago | parent [-]

How can Iran war escalate? Is there anything in which Iran is still relevant at all? At this point we can just forget of it. Of course, pipelines around Hormuz need to be finished but they are being quickly built right now. Surely cheap mass-produced interceptors for simple ballistic missiles are needed. Ukraine is working on them, it has to - in this sense, we can be confident in them simply because they are cornered and have no way around it.

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bigyabai 11 hours ago | parent [-]

The strait is still closed, import of fertilizer and bulk materials has effectively ceased: https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/08/1168190

The onus is now on the United States to escort ships in and out of the Strait with the US Navy, for shipping to resume for US allies. Otherwise, Iran has the initiative and the means to ransom anyone in the Strait for insurance. Israeli intelligence estimates say that the IRGC possesses as many as 80,000 operational UAVs[0] and can manufacture upwards of 400 Shahed 136 drones in a day. The United States does not have enough interceptors to escort ships even if that manufacturing was cut by 3/4ths. And there are no doubt tens-of-thousands of drones in reserve, earmarked for the littoral defense mission.

So, how can things escalate? Iran can use cheap weapons to terrorize global shipping for longer than the US Navy can sustain itself in the Gulf. MLRS artillery and drones can deny the Marine Corps a steady foothold or a safe supply chain to any of the Iranian shore islands. Tehran is too far away from America's allies to attempt a Thunder Run with the Army, and a demonstrable risk to the Air Force if they use drones or jets to support their ground formations.

If the goal of this war truly is to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, then America has to react. Iran has thousands of centrifuges in storage, domestic uranium mines and a stockpile of LEU and MEU[1] on standby.

[0] https://www.newsrael.com/posts/611y4wktzum

[1] https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/country-profil...

	▲	anovikov 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Well, only way to stop Iran from having a nuclear weapon is denying them electricity. Trump can do it easily but it literally means "ending civilisation" (knock out all thermal plants and monitor with infrared sensors to ensure they are not restored, there is no way to hide a working power plant). But it means no city life. Maybe it will come to that. Iran needs to be made irrelevant, and this can be done by working around the strait by building enough pipelines, in 1-3 years they will be gradually commissioned, and Iran's leverage will no longer exist.

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toomuchtodo 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Can those munitions be provided to Ukraine without US approval?

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ck2 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Putin must be laughing his *ss off