NEW YORK, April 24. /TASS/. The United States will have to make a difficult choice regarding where to more actively sustain its military capabilities following a shortage of munitions caused by the conflict in the Middle East, The New York Times (NYT) reported.

"The United States has many munitions with adequate inventories, but some critical ground-attack and missile-defense munitions were short before the war and are even shorter now," Mark F. Cancian, a retired Marine Corps colonel and a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the newspaper.

According to the NYT, the shortage of munitions for air defense systems will affect the combat readiness of US forces in Asia.

On Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that the United States had used more than 1,000 long-range Tomahawk missiles in the war with Iran, as well as between 1,500 and 2,000 critically important interceptor missiles for air defense systems, including THAAD and Patriot. According to the newspaper, fully replenishing the expended stockpiles could take up to six years.