MOSCOW, March 31. /TASS/. It will take the US at least seven years to replenish its Tomahawk cruise missile stockpiles at current production rates, Nikolay Gaponenko, PhD in economics and associate professor at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), told TASS amid reports that the US had run through hundreds of Tomahawks in the Iran war.
Earlier, The Washington Post, citing sources, reported that the US had fired more than 850 Tomahawk cruise missiles at Iran in just four weeks, most of them in the first days of the operation. The Pentagon does not publish exact figures on the number of missiles in service with the US Armed Forces, but it is known that only a few hundred are manufactured each year, meaning the global supply is limited, the publication notes.
"For example, if 850 missiles are expended in a month or two of a conflict, and a factory produces, say, 100-120 per year, then replenishing this stockpile will take seven to eight and a half years, assuming new missiles aren’t used in other conflicts," the expert emphasized.
Peacetime production of Tomahawk missiles ranges from several dozen to just over 100 missiles per year, and since US military factories haven’t been converted to wartime operation, the production chain requires a long manufacturing cycle, Gaponenko noted.
"Two factors combine to create a criticial shortage: the rate of production and the lack of reserves," he said.
The Tomahawk is the US Navy’s primary long-range precision-guided weapon, the expert said. "It is launched from destroyers, cruisers, and submarines. It is a consumable for delivering first strikes against air defense systems, headquarters, warehouses, and critical infrastructure," Gaponenko said.