US officials push back on reports of dangerously low munitions supplies

The White House and Pentagon have pushed back on a slate of recent reports indicating that supplies of both offensive and defensive weapons have dropped dangerously low after five months of war on Iran.

Experts have said that low supplies of air defence interceptors, particularly those used in Patriot and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) air defence systems, may pose a particular threat to US forces, with knock-on effects for allies in the region and beyond.

But in a statement provided to Al Jazeera on Tuesday by the White House, President Donald Trump pushed back on claims the US faced deficiencies in its current supply.

“We have far more munitions than anyone in the world, and far more than we need, despite the fact that an unprecedented amount was given away by Crooked Joe Biden and the Biden Administration to Ukraine and Europe at no cost, in one of many of their extremely dumb moves,” Trump said. He was referencing the Patriot interceptor transfers to Ukraine under former President Joe Biden following Russia’s invasion.

Trump pointed to new efforts to scale up weapons production, although experts have questioned whether supplies of air defence missiles could indeed be scaled up in a timely fashion.

“And as we build up, we will start issuing more to our allies in Europe and elsewhere,” Trump said.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell also maintained that the US was not in dire straits on the issue.

“America’s military is the most powerful in the world and has everything it needs to execute at the time and place of the President’s choosing,” Parnell said in a statement to Al Jazeera.