Latest news with #ballistic missiles
CNN
2 days ago
- Politics
- CNN
US used up about a quarter of its high-end missile interceptors during Israel-Iran war, exposing gap in supplies
The United States blew through about a quarter of its supply of high-end THAAD missile interceptors during Israel's 12-day war with Iran in June, according to two sources familiar with the operation, thwarting attacks at a rate that vastly outpaces production. US forces countered Tehran's barrage of ballistic missiles by firing more than 100 THAADs (short for Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) – and possibly as many as 150 – a significant portion of America's stockpile of the advanced air defense system, the sources said. The US has seven THAAD systems, and used two of them in Israel in the conflict. Using so many THAAD interceptors in such a short period exposed a gap in the US missile defense network and depleted a costly asset at a moment when American public support for Israeli defense has reached historic lows. Former US defense officials and missile experts told CNN that the rapid drawdown has also raised concerns about America's global security posture and ability to regenerate supplies at speed. Last year, the US produced only 11 new THAAD interceptors and is expected to receive just 12 more this fiscal year, according to the 2026 budget estimates from the Department of Defense. In response to questions regarding the US's THAAD stockpile and the expenditure of interceptors during the 12-day conflict, Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson said the US military 'is the strongest it has even been and has everything it needs to conduct any mission anywhere, anytime, all around the world. If you need further proof, look no further than Operation Midnight Hammer and the total obliteration of Iran's nuclear capabilities.' CNN reported that an early intelligence assessment determined the US' strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities last month did not destroy the core components of the country's nuclear program and likely only set it back by months. The US administration dismissed the assessment, and the CIA later said it had evidence Iran's nuclear program was 'severely damaged.' A defense official declined to provide information on the THAAD inventory due to operational security concerns, but said the Defense Department 'remains postured to respond to any threat.' The number of THAADs spent in the 12-day war was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. Despite the heavy use of THAADs during the 12-day war to help fend off Tehran's assault last month, dozens of Iranian missiles still struck Israel. THAAD is a mobile system that can engage and destroy short-, medium-, and intermediate-range ballistic missiles both inside and outside of the Earth's atmosphere during their final phase of flight. Each battery is operated by 95 American soldiers, armed with six launchers, and 48 interceptors. The interceptors are manufactured by Lockheed Martin and cost roughly $12.7 million, according to the 2025 Missile Defense Agency budget. The US plans to acquire 37 THAAD interceptors next year, according to the 2026 Department of defense budget estimates, financed partially by the latest addition to President Donald Trump's so-called 'big, beautiful bill.' A defense official said the 2026 budget 'prioritizes funding in the defense industrial base, a core strategic asset that provides and sustains our military's technology, equipment, and supplies.' 'The budget includes an additional $1.3 billion for industrial based supply chain improvements, and an additional $2.5 billion for missiles and munitions production expansion,' the official said. 'The Department's role is to ensure that the President is armed with the best possible military options for any scenario – and all options remain on the table.' But experts and former defense officials warn that supplies need to be ramped up significantly to deal with the shortfall. 'It is important to recognize the level of commitment and the level of expenditure here in defense of Israel is significant,' said a missile defense expert who has been tracking the US government's expenditure. 'The reports about THAAD expenditure are concerning. This is not the sort of thing that the US can afford to continue to do on and on,' he added. 'It was a major commitment to our Israeli ally, but missile defense interceptor capacity is definitely a concern, and THAAD is a very scarce resource.' A senior retired US army officer who asked not to be named said around 25% of THAAD's total inventory was used by US forces in Israel participating in the war effort. 'The (Department of Defense) is looking at wartime stockage levels of critical munitions and attempting to significantly increase annual production capacity, an effort that is long overdue,' the source said. US interceptor stockpile concerns preceded the 12-day war, according to four former senior US defense officials who say that the problem is most acute in inventories of high-end interceptors that are a key part of deterrence against China. 'What I can say without giving any numbers is I was surprised at how low some of the levels of readiness were,' said one former defense official who left his post in the last year. 'Stockpiles are dropping. We need more. We need them faster than they are being built,' said the same ex-official. 'This is a concern. It was a concern during the Biden administration. I'm sure it's a concern now during the Trump administration,' one former senior Biden defense official said. 'Air defense is relevant in all of the major theaters right now. And there's not enough systems. There's not enough interceptors. There's not enough production and there are not enough people working on it,' said Mara Karlin, former US Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy, Plans, and Capabilities under Biden. 'You have the challenge of something being both incredibly relevant and also there's a dearth of them,' she added. There are nine active THAAD batteries globally, according to manufacturer Lockheed Martin. The US military has seven of those and plans to have an eighth active by 2025, according to the Congressional Research Service. Data available in 2019 showed that five of the US' THAADs were stationed at bases in Texas, one in Guam and one in South Korea; by last year, the Pentagon had moved two of those batteries to the Middle East to protect Israel. Two others were delivered to the United Arab Emirates and have been used to intercept Houthi militant ballistic missiles. While most of Iran's missiles were downed by Israeli and US air defenses, experts, open-source data and video from the ground reviewed by CNN showed that dozens did manage to get through. Tehran's success rate rose as the war raged on, amounting to some of the worst damage Israel has seen in decades. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Iran fired over 500 long-range ballistic missiles, and it was able to intercept around 86% of those – with 36 Iranian missiles striking built-up areas. Major cities like Tel Aviv suffered extensive damage, whole apartment buildings were destroyed, sensitive military sites targeted, parts of the power grid were taken out and 29 people were killed. Israel's tax authority estimated in late June that the war would cost the country at least $1.8 billion in damage, but with claims still yet to be filed that number was expected to rise. Analysis conducted by DC-based think tank Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA) estimated that THAADs – alongside Israel's Arrow-2 and Arrow-3 interceptors – downed 201 of Iran's 574 missiles, with 57 hitting populated areas. The report estimated that the US' THAAD system accounted for almost half of all interceptions, indicating that Israel's Arrow interceptor stockpiles were insufficient. Israel's Iron Dome system was designed to deflect shorter-range rockets than those being fired by Iran. 'After burning through a large portion of their available interceptors, the United States and Israel both face an urgent need to replenish stockpiles and sharply increase production rates,' Ari Cicurel, author of the report, wrote, estimating that it would take three to eight years to replenish at current production rates. According to data compiled by JINSA, interception rates lagged as the war wore on. Only 8% of Iranian missiles penetrated defenses in the first week of the war. That doubled to 16% in the second half of the conflict and eventually culminated at 25% on the final day of the war before the ceasefire. Analysts say there are several possible reasons for the trend, including an Iranian shift of focus from military targets to populated urban areas, where interception is less robust. Iran also fired more sophisticated missiles as the war progressed. '(Iran) increasingly employed more advanced systems,' said Mora Deitch, head of the data analytics center at Israel's Institute for National Security Studies (INSS). 'These included newer missiles with multiple warheads or decoys, which may individually cause less damage but can overwhelm and saturate air defense systems.' Deitch also suggests that Israel may have deliberately relaxed its interception rate. 'Israel's air defense policy may have evolved over time to accommodate a protracted engagement with Iran,' said Deitch. 'What appears as a decline in interception effectiveness might instead reflect a deliberate shift in strategy rather than a technological shortfall.' Still missile defense analysts say they saw clear signs of air defense depletion. 'The presence of the THAAD battery in the first place suggests that the Israelis don't have a super deep interceptor magazine,' said Sam Lair, research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS). Lair published analysis of interceptors seen in a series of social media video taken by a Jordanian photographer, Zaid Abbadi, from his rooftop in an Amman suburb as the missiles flew overhead. Lair counted 39 THAAD among 82 advanced interceptors in the sample, which consisted of sporadically recorded night-time recording. CNN was able to verify the THAAD tally from the videos. Over half a dozen experts say the number represents a very conservative baseline. Drawing on calculations about publicly available data on batteries, interceptor reloads, and the number of Iranian ballistic missiles fired, experts believe that the US military fired at least 80 THAAD interceptors. 'The 12-day war in June of this year essentially saw the first significant expenditure of THAAD interceptors,' said Timur Kadyshev, a senior researcher at the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg. 'Israel was relatively successful in defending (with the US assistance) against unsophisticated Iranian missiles – at the cost of depleting available arsenals of interceptors.' The problem for the US is especially acute in the Indo-Pacific where China has tried to keep the US navy at arm's length, experts say. 'From a narrowly military standpoint, the Chinese are absolutely the winners in that these last almost two years in the Middle East have seen the US expend pretty substantial amounts of capabilities that the American defense industrial base will find pretty hard to replace,' said Sidharth Kaushal, senior research fellow at Royal United Services Institute. Ex-defense officials said dwindling defensive capabilities in the Indo-Pacific was a growing concern for the former administration of President Joe Biden as they used the US stockpile to battle Yemen's Houthi rebels. 'God forbid there should be a conflict in the Pacific, for example, then it really will put a huge strain our missile capacity and the ability for our military to have the munitions necessary to keep up,' said one former senior Biden administration defense official with direct knowledge of the US campaign against the Houthis. 'You have to make choices,' said Jennifer Kavanagh, senior fellow and director of military analysis at Defense Priorities. 'The Biden administration also should have thought about these trade-offs, but they were able to shrug them off because it was early in these wars… stockpiles were still deep enough that they could turn a blind eye to it.' 'But the Trump administration now is getting to a point where they're not going to be able to ignore the trade-offs.' CNN's Haley Britzky contributed to this report.
CBC
4 days ago
- Politics
- CBC
Higher, faster, more destructive: Upgraded Russian drones wreak havoc on Ukrainian cities
When the air raid siren wails and the alert sounds on Oleksandr Matviienko's cellphone, the Kyiv resident starts quickly scrolling through social media channels, trying to glean more information about what exactly is headed toward the capital. If he sees talk of ballistic missiles or drones saturating the sky, he grabs his sleeping bag and mat positioned near the doorway, and heads to the nearby metro station to join a crowd prepared to spend hours waiting out the attack by sheltering underground. "I understand that the threat is really huge now," Matviienko said to CBC News in an interview by Zoom. "You never know if it will hit your apartment or your neighbour or neighbourhood." Matviiienko is a defence journalist at the Counteroffensive Pro, a Kyiv-based newsletter focused on defence innovation. He has experienced first-hand the fear and sleepless nights triggered by Russia's record-breaking drone attacks, and he understands Ukraine's challenges as it tries to intercept large volleys of modified drones that have been designed to fly faster and higher, as well as harder to disrupt. Iranian design, Russian upgrades In the fall of 2022, Russia began using Iranian-made Shahed drones, which crash into targets and explode on impact. The drones have a wingspan of more than two metres and make a loud buzzing noise that some compare to the sound of a moped. While it was Iranian drones that initially terrorized Ukrainian cities, Russia has ramped up its own production of three variations, the Geran-1, Geran-2 and Geran-3. While Russia hasn't disclosed how many drones it produces in a month, a recent report by Zvezda, one of the country's state broadcasters, purported to show a factory full of drones in Russia's Tatarstan region. The report detailed the factory's growing workforce, which is being supplemented by high school students getting on-the-job training. Just as Ukraine has continued to develop its weaponry since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022, Russia's drones have gone through several technological upgrades. Ukraine says the drones can now be equipped with more than 90 kilograms of explosives and have been found with shrapnel munitions to cause damage to a wider area. Russia is also launching the unmanned aerial vehicles in much larger volleys, in an effort to overwhelm Ukraine's defence system. While Kyiv continues to shoot down the vast majority of them, the sheer size of the swarms means more drones get through the defence systems and hit targets. "Now we are in the most challenging time," said Matviienko. "Previously, they launched like 300 to 400 drones on the whole country, and now they are concentrating on one or two cities." Record-breaking attack In recent weeks, Kyiv has come under aerial attack several times. On June 28, at least 28 people were killed and more than 100 injured when drones and missiles targeted the capital over a nine-hour period. One of the drones slammed into a high-rise apartment building, destroying several of the units. Then, in the overnight hours between July 8 and July 9, Russia launched its largest barrage of drones yet, with 728 targeting Ukraine along with 13 missiles. Yuriy Ignat, a spokesperson with Ukraine's air force, compared the scenario to a high-speed chess game. "One can imagine what happens when 741 drones and missiles simultaneously appear on the map of Ukraine," said Ignat. "During those moments, commanders make difficult decisions about what methods should be used to shoot them down." As part of its barrage of weaponry, Russia is also launching decoy drones, which are made up of similar components but don't carry a warhead. There are several types of decoys, including some that look very similar to the Iranian Shahed drones and the Russian-produced Geran models. This makes it difficult for Ukraine's air force to spot the real ones, stretching its air defence systems even further. More sophisticated navigation system When Russia launches the drones, Ukraine uses radar to detect the incoming weapons and then deploys a variety of methods to try to intercept them, but upgrades on the drones have created several challenges. One change is to paint them in a black coating that makes them physically more difficult to see at night, Ignat said. Experts say the devices are now being equipped with a global navigation satellite system, which includes larger arrays of antennae and makes them more resistant to electronic jamming. Ignat said the drones are flying higher — often at an altitude of two kilometres or higher — making it difficult for mobile defence teams to shoot them down with machine guns. And they're also flying faster. Experts say the Geran-2 model can travel around 200 km/h. The latest Geran-3 drone, in which the piston engine has been replaced by jet power, can travel at more than 500 km/h. While Ukraine is using F-16 fighter jets, helicopters and air defence missiles to try and take down the UAVs, Matviiienko says Ukraine needs a deluge of fast, relatively cheap interceptor drones that can fly at least 300 km/hour. Currently, though, there are relatively few domestic producers making them, he added. Funding for more production In a meeting with journalists last month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine's mobile fire teams are now using interceptor drones more than machine guns. He said four companies are currently making interceptor drones, with two of them "already very successful in this area." Ukraine is prepared to ramp up production and has secured a financing agreement with Germany, he said. Canada had also committed to lending its support, Zelenskyy added Ukraine's Defence Minister Denys Shmyhal reportedly told allies during a meeting earlier this week that Kyiv needed $6 billion US to plug its weapons production shortfall for this year, which includes the manufacturing of interceptor drones.
France 24
6 days ago
- Politics
- France 24
Amnesty accuses Iran of firing cluster munitions at Israel
"Last month, the Iranian forces fired ballistic missiles whose warheads contained submunitions into populated residential areas of Israel," the human rights group said, citing new research. The organisation said it analysed photos and videos showing cluster munitions that, according to media reports, struck inside the Gush Dan metropolitan area around Tel Aviv on June 19. On top of that, the southern city of Beersheba on June 20 and Rishon LeZion to the south of Tel Aviv on June 22 were also "struck with ordnance that left multiple impact craters consistent with the submunitions seen in Gush Dan", Amnesty said. "By using such weapons in or near populated residential areas, Iranian forces endangered civilian lives," said Erika Guevara Rosas, senior director at Amnesty International. "Iranian forces' deliberate use of such inherently indiscriminate weapons is a blatant violation of international humanitarian law." Cluster munitions explode in mid-air and scatter bomblets. Some of them do not explode on impact and can cause casualties over time, particularly among children. Neither Iran nor Israel is among more than a hundred countries that are party to the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions, which prohibits the use, transfer, production and storage of cluster bombs. Amnesty said international law "prohibits the use of inherently indiscriminate weapons, and launching indiscriminate attacks that kill or injure civilians constitutes a war crime". Israel and Iran fought a 12-day war sparked by an Israeli bombing campaign on June 13. Israel said the strikes were aimed at preventing the Islamic republic from developing a nuclear weapon, an ambition Tehran has consistently denied.
NHK
22-07-2025
- Politics
- NHK
North Korea starts building third new-class destroyer: State media
North Korean media say the country has begun building its third new-class destroyer, reportedly capable of carrying ballistic missiles. Tuesday's edition of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party newspaper Rodong Sinmun reported that employees of a shipyard in the western city of Nampho had gathered to start building another 5,000-ton destroyer. The newspaper said the workers aim to finish building the vessel by October 10 next year, the anniversary of the founding of the ruling Korean Workers' Party. North Korea has launched two destroyers of the same class this year, said to be capable of carrying ballistic and cruise missiles. The North's leader Kim Jong Un has said he plans to build two destroyers of the same or even larger class every year. South Korean experts have noted that the destroyers' air defense and missile systems appear to resemble those of Russia's. This has fueled speculation that Moscow is providing technological and equipment support in exchange for ammunition and troop deployments from Pyongyang. In May, a ceremony was held to mark the launch of the second destroyer, but it tipped onto its side and partially submerged. The incident drew sharp criticism from the North Korean leader. The vessel was said to be launched in June following repairs.
