"Burning Money" Like Water! US Military Missile Inventory in Crisis, Trump Faces Massive Defense Spending "Tug-of-War"

As the US-Iran conflict continues, the U.S. military is facing an extremely difficult problem: their “stockpile” is running out…

According to three informed sources, since the outbreak of the US-Iran war, the Trump administration has exhausted key munitions accumulated over years. This has raised widespread concerns about escalating conflict costs and whether the U.S. can replenish its supplies in time.

Sources say that among the rapidly depleted weapons are advanced long-range “Tomahawk” cruise missiles. An individual familiar with U.S. military ammunition usage bluntly stated that this represents a massive consumption of “Tomahawk” missiles, and that the Navy will feel the pain of this depletion in the coming years.

As the war has caused key maritime trade routes to stall and pushed oil prices above $100 per barrel, rising costs are putting enormous pressure on President Trump. In a midterm election year, with gasoline prices soaring, the war is rapidly eroding support among American voters, who are beginning to question whether the president has led the country into another prolonged Middle Eastern conflict.

It is expected that the Pentagon will formally submit a request for up to $50 billion in additional military funding to the White House and Congress in the coming days. This supplemental funding request will kick off what is likely to be a fierce “money race” on Capitol Hill, while also exposing growing unease among lawmakers about government actions.

Senate Appropriations Committee Republican Lisa Murkowski warned that if the White House expects Congress to write a blank check unconditionally, lawmakers will strongly resist. She said Thursday that the Pentagon must “actively communicate” with Congress. “You need to provide us with information and legitimate reasons,” she said. “Don’t assume that Congress’s role is just to sign a blank check.”

Any supplemental bill aimed at funding the Iran war could face fierce battles in both the House and Senate. Currently, Republicans only control the House by a narrow margin, and fiscal conservatives are likely to be wary of any large taxpayer-funded expenditure—especially if the White House tries to include “hidden” items like tariffs on farmers or other public spending in the military funding package.

Democratic lawmakers may also hesitate to approve more funding for the Pentagon, having previously criticized the Iran war as illegal because Trump did not seek congressional approval.

Former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, urged colleagues Thursday to approve the military supplemental budget request regardless of opposition to presidential military action against Iran. He sees it as a “long-overdue opportunity to invest in urgent and strategic defense priorities.”

“Weakness invites challenge,” McConnell, who often criticized Trump during his second term, said in the Senate chamber. “Whoever is the commander-in-chief, our adversaries are trying every way to weaken and undermine America.”

Earlier this week, Pentagon officials told senators that in the first six days of the strike operations, the war had already cost over $11 billion, mostly spent on ammunition.

“Our fired munitions—Patriot missiles, THAAD interceptors… each of these systems costs millions of dollars,” said Democratic Senator and retired Air Force veteran Mark Kelly in an interview with MS Now. Meanwhile, Iran is “launching extremely cheap drones,” specifically the Shahid drone.

According to U.S. intelligence officials, Iran can rapidly mass-produce this weapon at a cost of only $30,000 per unit. “This economic calculation is simply unmanageable,” Kelly added. An informed source said the military expects to brief Congress on ammunition consumption in the coming days.

In recent years, U.S. officials have become increasingly worried that the rate of key munitions consumption may far outpace production, especially as the U.S. becomes involved in conflicts with adversaries like Russia. This could lead to dangerously depleted weapon stocks and leave the U.S. military unprepared for future wars.

Murkowski recalled that in recent years, the U.S. government has told Ukraine and European allies that we are “willing to do more” to help replenish arms, “but our own stockpiles are also running low.” “Considering the massive consumption of stocks every day in the Iran operations, I think we all have good reason to question what our ammunition supply really looks like,” Murkowski added.

Last week, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin stated firmly: “We are not short of ammunition. Our stockpiles of offensive and defensive weapons are sufficient to sustain this campaign, regardless of how long it takes.”

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also echoed on Thursday: “The U.S. military has ample ammunition and weapons stockpiles to achieve President Trump’s goals for the ‘Epic Fury’ operation, and even more. Nonetheless, President Trump remains highly focused on strengthening our armed forces, and he will continue to call on defense contractors to accelerate the production of America’s top-tier weapons.”

“Tomahawk” is an subsonic cruise missile carrying a 1,000-pound warhead, produced by U.S. manufacturer RTX, with a unit cost of up to $3.6 million. Over the past five years, the U.S. military has only purchased 322 of these missiles, including 57 reserved for the Navy for fiscal year 2026 (costing $206.6 million). Compared to the quantities fired on the battlefield in recent days, this procurement is a drop in the bucket.

Additionally, during 2024 and 2025, the U.S. has launched at least 124 “Tomahawk” missiles to strike Houthi forces in Yemen and Iranian nuclear facilities. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley revealed last June that over 20 missiles were used in the attack on Iran’s Isfahan facilities. The Center for Strategic and International Studies estimates that during the first 100 hours of this war, which began on February 28, the U.S. has launched 168 “Tomahawk” missiles.

“This number is enormous and will take years to replenish,” lamented a U.S. lawmaker discussing the stockpiles of “Tomahawk” missiles, “THAAD” interceptors, and “Patriot” missiles. Since the conflict began, facing Iran’s barrage of missiles and drones targeting U.S. and allied assets in the Middle East, these air defense weapons are crucial.

Senate Banking Committee Democrat Ron Wyden said Thursday that the U.S. is pouring “hundreds of billions of dollars” into a war that has proven extremely unpopular with the American public. He criticized that the spending “keeps escalating in the gaps between our words,” calling it “absolutely astronomical.”