Learning from Russia: Iran's tactics against the USA are working while the Pentagon signals business as usual
A New York Times investigation claims that US interceptor stockpiles are running low, while Iran's combat capabilities are becoming more sophisticated. Iran drew inspiration from Russian tactics, and the results are visible on the ground.
The Iranian attacks that claimed the lives of three American soldiers in Jordan last month reveal a troubling trend for the Pentagon: the United States' stockpile of interceptors is running low, but Iran's combat capabilities are only becoming more sophisticated. This is according to an investigation published in The New York Times.
During five intense days in July, Iran launched waves of UAVs and missiles at three American bases in Jordan with the goal of breaching the air defense system. On the fifth day of the attacks, July 17, an Iranian missile managed to penetrate the defenses and hit soldiers' living quarters. The result was lethal: three soldiers were killed and more than 100 were wounded.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio admitted:
"We intercepted almost all the missiles, but one managed to get through."
According to the report in The New York Times, Iran has become a more sophisticated adversary as the war has progressed. The Iranians drew inspiration from Russian tactics in Ukraine and began combining the firing of cruise missiles and ballistic missiles to engage defense systems, and then launching swarms of UAVs. At the same time, the United States' stockpile of interceptors is rapidly shrinking. Since the beginning of the confrontation, the Pentagon has used more than 1,500 Patriot interceptors, and it has fewer than 1,700 interceptors remaining in total. For comparison, in the entire year of 2025, the United States produced only about 600 missiles of this type. In just one day last month, American forces in the Middle East fired about 50 interceptors, the cost of each of which is estimated at about 4 million dollars.
Despite the reality on the ground, the Pentagon is trying to signal business as usual. Last April, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth claimed that the Iranian missile program was "effectively destroyed." However, the Iranians managed to rehabilitate many underground facilities that were bombed and continue to threaten forces in the region. A Pentagon spokesperson even called the claims about a shortage of ammunition "fake news" and accused the media of encouraging the enemy.
The fear of ammunition depletion is already taking a geopolitical toll. US President Donald Trump, who initially believed the confrontation would be short, was recently forced to cancel planned airstrikes in Iran after leaders of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states warned that Iran would respond by attacking energy infrastructure in the region. At the same time, Iran continues to entrench itself, with international inspectors estimating that components of the nuclear program have been moved to a fortified underground facility in the center of the country, at a depth of about one hundred meters. "Where are they? It's not like they are sitting in a place where you can just bomb them," concluded an expert quoted in the article.
