US Army CH-47 Chinook helicopters prepare to land in the Middle East on Wednesday (local time). [AFP]
US Army CH-47 Chinook helicopters prepare to land in the Middle East on Wednesday (local time). [AFP]

As the United States and Iran enter a ninth consecutive day of airstrikes and the prospect of all-out war grows, the Washington Post reported Sunday that US weapons stockpiles are running low and American forces are not adequately prepared for ground combat.

Citing a source familiar with internal deliberations within the US administration, the Post said the United States is preparing for a larger-scale war and that the Defense Ministry is deploying additional military aircraft to the Middle East. However, the source said operational expansion faces real limits, as stocks of air-defense weapons and long-range precision munitions are being rapidly depleted and combat losses have constrained the ability to send additional troops and aircraft.

The source said current forces alone are not sufficient to sustain operations safely, and that the White House does not appear to fully grasp that reality.

Seth Jones, director of defense and security at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, said deploying ground troops to islands in the Strait of Hormuz or onto Iranian soil "would be a mistake," adding that US forces are not prepared to counter Iran's long-range strike capabilities.

Concern over the defensive capacity of US bases in the Middle East has grown as American military casualties from Iranian attacks continue to mount.

A US service member who had been stationed at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan told the Post that many of the base's facilities consist of container buildings, metal structures and tents that cannot withstand rockets, mortars or drone strikes, and that even recently built reinforced structures are no match for a direct ballistic missile hit.

The service member said that during the US-Iran missile exchanges in March, a reinforced barracks at Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait took a direct hit and roughly half the building was destroyed. "US military facilities across the Middle East are being hit on a broad scale," the service member said. "We are getting hit on every front."

The question of US weapons stockpiles has been raised consistently since the war with Iran began. According to CSIS data from April, the US military had used at least half of its stockpiled Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) and Patriot interceptor missiles in the conflict with Iran, and had expended roughly 30 percent of its Tomahawk missile inventory. The United States has since moved to replenish key weapons, but the pace has been slow.

CNN said the United States is showing its military limits in this war, noting that Iran has survived more than a year of large-scale targeted killings and more than 13,000 airstrikes while keeping its government intact. Simply enduring without the regime collapsing amounts to a kind of victory, the network said.


yckim6452@heraldcorp.com