How did America burn through it's missile reserves so quickly? (lemmygrad.ml)

submitted 4 days ago by RedPartisan@lemmygrad.ml to c/military@lemmygrad.ml

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Apparently they had to magdump their Patriot intercepter missiles, but why? And what about the offensive missiles? What happened?

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[-] o_d@lemmygrad.ml 25 points 3 days ago

Iran will fire a wave of 50 Shahed missiles, each costing around $20,000 ($1 million in total). A single THAAD interceptor costs upwards of $12 million. A patriot interceptor battery with a full compliment can easily cost $1 billion.

Just to drive this point home even further, $20,000 is the estimate to build a single Shahed-136 drone if it were built in the USA. I've seen estimates that it might be as little as 10% of that in actuality.

[-] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 7 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Unlikely just the engine costs like 12k.

[-] AverageWestoid@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 6 hours ago

In American prices...

this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2026

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