# America is firing missiles faster than it can build them > Seven months into the war with Iran, the shelves are emptying and the factories cannot catch up. - Title: America is firing missiles faster than it can build them - Summary: Seven months into the war with Iran, the shelves are emptying and the factories cannot catch up. The U.S. can out-shoot Iran but not out-produce a long war… - Keywords: defense, missiles, iran, manufacturing, supply chain, news, America, firing, faster, build, them, CBS News - Source: CBS News — https://cbsnews.com/news/missile-crisis-the-hard-truths-about-americas-military-arsenal - Author: David Martin - Published: 2026-09-13T14:11:32+00:00 - Read time: 2 min - Topics: defense, missiles, iran, manufacturing, supply chain, news ## A four million dollar bullet The newest Patriot kills an incoming ballistic missile by slamming into it, no warhead needed. Each interceptor costs about $4 million. > It's going to vaporize pretty much whatever it hits. ## Building 750, firing 1,500 Lockheed Martin turns out roughly 750 Patriots a year. The war against Iran has burned through an estimated 1,500 of them. ## Twenty five billion, spent Mark Cancian of CSIS priced the Patriot, Tomahawk, THAAD, PrSM and three other key munitions fired at Iran. The bill so far is around $25 billion. ## Ukraine was the warning Both parties let the high-end weapons shortage slide for years. It only registered after the U.S. started arming Ukraine in 2022 and saw how thin the shelves were. > The war in Ukraine was the wake-up call. ## Thirteen thousand targets By April 8, the Joint Force had struck more than 13,000 targets in Iran. Every enemy ballistic missile launched has to be answered with an expensive interceptor. > If they fire a ballistic missile, we have to use one of our high-end systems to defend. ## Iran yes, China no Cancian says the U.S. has enough to finish this war. A fight with China is a different math problem, and the trouble starts in month two. > We might be able to provide enough munitions for a month, but getting on to month two or month three or four, that's a great challenge. ## The Pentagon denies it Officials say talk of shortages is false and only encourages attacks on American troops. Meanwhile Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is pushing industry onto a wartime footing. > Claims of U.S. munition shortages are false. ## All of them A Patriot takes six weeks to assemble but two years to source its 4,000 parts, drawn from 500 to 1,000 suppliers. Many parts have exactly one qualified maker. > Our joke is, 'How many parts does it take to build a missile?' And the answer is, 'All of them.' ## Rocket fuel, baked slowly L3Harris makes the Patriot's motors five miles away, curing the propellant in ovens like pottery in a kiln. A more automated plant is still 16 months from opening. > That cure time in the oven can take from days to weeks. ## Cheap missiles, by the thousand CoAspire builds an air-launched cruise missile for a couple hundred thousand dollars, with 200 parts and a hobbyist engine. The Pentagon wants 10,000 low-cost missiles. > We're trying to build these in high quantities, knowing that they're not as exquisite. ## Years to refill the shelves Getting back to pre-war stock takes one to five years depending on the weapon. Reaching the level war planners actually want for China takes several years beyond that. > It's about one to five years, depending on the munition. ## Key takeaway The U.S. can out-shoot Iran but not out-produce a long war, and refilling the arsenal will take years, not months.