Patriot missles are seen at the Rzeszow-Jasionka Airport, March 25, 2022, in Jasionka, Poland. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
Updated 2:29 PM EDT, August 27, 2026The U.S. military is experiencing a “beyond critical” shortage of advanced missile interceptors in Europe largely driven by President Donald Trump’s war with Iran, a U.S. defense official in Europe and a NATO official told The Associated Press, raising concerns about vulnerabilities in NATO countries to a potential Russian attack.
The U.S. defense official said the most concerning shortfall involves Patriot missile interceptors, which can shoot down Russia’s high-speed ballistic missiles. The NATO official confirmed the low inventories of Patriots among American and NATO forces in Europe. Both spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military matters.
In the event of a Russian ballistic missile assault on, for example, a military headquarters or power plant, NATO could be in a similar position to Patriot-starved Ukraine and be forced “to take punch after punch in the mouth,” the U.S. defense official said.
In Europe, the American military “definitely” does not have enough Patriots to stop any possible sustained ballistic missile attack and would have “very limited” capability to defend against a single ballistic missile strike or a stray Russian missile that goes off course, the U.S. official said.
It illustrates the cascading fallout from Trump’s decision to launch a war against Iran, a conflict that reaches the six-month mark on Friday. U.S. missile stocks in Europe have been moved to the Middle East, where U.S. and Gulf allies have fired off significant numbers of interceptors, including Patriots, to thwart Iran’s drones and missiles. Some of those attacks have killed and wounded American troops.
Though a Russian ballistic missile attack against NATO countries is not imminently expected, CIA Director John Ratcliffe went to Moscow this week to warn Russia not to attack, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Asked by reporters Thursday whether Ratcliffe delivered that message to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump offered a roundabout response.
“I don’t want to comment on that, but they’re not going to attack,” Trump said.
European and NATO officials say Russia could be in a position to attack countries in the alliance by 2030. Patriot stockpiles are projected to rebound by then. In the meantime, Russia’s war in Ukraine could hinder its ability to carry out any missile attack on Europe as it would be a challenge for Moscow to fight an air war on two fronts.
US Patriot transfers to Ukraine played a role in the drawdown, but the Iran war wasn’t expected
U.S. Army Col. Martin O’Donnell, a senior NATO military spokesperson, said it is “simply not the case” that the number of Patriot missiles in Europe is beyond critical.
NATO, he said, is able to “block punches” and has enough air defense munitions available to defend itself as well as to donate to Ukraine.
Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement Thursday that claims of U.S. munition shortages “are false.”
“We have everything required to strike at the time and place of the President’s choosing,” Parnell said. “Across multiple combatant commands, we have already executed successful operations while maintaining a deep, ready arsenal to defend our people and our interests.”
Officials in Ukraine, however, are begging for more Patriots to defend against Russian missile attacks, while previous U.S. transfers to Ukraine have drawn down some of the American supply of the interceptors.
Kyiv says only U.S.-made Patriots can stop Russia’s advanced ballistic missiles, which increasingly are getting through Ukrainian defenses, including as part of a barrage overnight into Thursday.
The U.S. supplied hundreds of Patriot missiles to Ukraine over the course of the 4 1/2-year-long conflict, but the Iran war was the tipping point for shrinking inventories, said Ed Arnold, senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a military think tank in London.
The supply to Ukraine was planned for and reasonably measured, he said, whereas stocks in the Middle East have been unexpectedly and quickly drained, exposing supply chain constraints.
The U.S. military in Europe also is grappling with critical shortages of the Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS, a medium-range ballistic missile designed to strike behind enemy lines, the two officials said. But the overall munitions picture in Europe is less dire than on air defenses alone because some European militaries have their own offensive missiles, such as the Taurus and Storm Shadow, which are both long-range air-launched bunker-busting missiles.
Europe has few alternatives while stocks are low
The dearth of Patriot interceptors in Europe would leave few alternatives for shooting down Russia’s more advanced ballistic missiles, which can be combined with swarms of inexpensive drones to overwhelm defenses, experts say.
Ukraine and some allies already use systems that can destroy slower-moving drones without expensive missiles. But ballistic missiles are a challenge because they dive steeply toward targets at more than five times the speed of sound, leaving little time to stop them.
The Patriot system tracks the missile, predicts its path and launches within minutes, all while carrying out complex calculations to ensure the interceptor finds its target. One Patriot battery can only cover a limited area: for example, a small military base but not a whole city.
One alternative could be France and Italy’s SAMP/T NG air defense system. France has promised to speed up the delivery of the system — the upgraded version of the current SAMP/T — to Ukraine, which the manufacturer says is better able to counter ballistics.
The new iteration, however, has not yet been battle tested and the current version of the SAMP/T has a smaller range than the Patriot.
While U.S. and European militaries have warships that can serve as mobile air defense, they may be too far from a target to protect it and could risk getting sunk.
Patriot stocks have plunged during the Iran war
Ukraine has received Patriots from American and European stockpiles since Russia’s 2022 invasion, with the U.S. providing about 600 of the interceptors during the Biden administration, said Mark Cancian, a retired Marine colonel who is now senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.
But the greatest expenditure has been during the Iran conflict, which has used up 65% of U.S. Patriots, amounting to roughly 1,500 of the nation’s 2,330 interceptors, CSIS says. About 600 missiles, including those destined for Europe, should be made this year, with a production goal of 2,000 Patriot missiles a year set for 2030, Cancian said.
NATO says Europe’s first Patriot missile production facility is expected to open in Germany in September, with deliveries possibly beginning early next year. The first deliveries should go to countries that have already placed orders, including Germany, the Netherlands, Romania and Spain, the U.S. defense official said.
But for now, that means some countries, such as Germany, have bought expensive Patriot systems but are in the “ridiculous” position of not having any ammunition to fire from them, said Arnold of the London think tank.
Germany’s defense ministry said it does not comment on stockpiles.
Russia also has limitations
Moscow likely cannot carry out a sustained air assault on a NATO target while it launches almost nightly attacks on Ukraine, Arnold said.
Ukraine’s recent strikes into Russia also have exposed weaknesses in Russia’s air defenses, which could prompt Putin to think twice about provoking a retaliatory attack.
“The uncomfortable truth is possibly the best air defense that we have is Russian constraints,” Arnold said.
___—————————————————————————————-
Burrows reported from London. Associated Press writers Konstantin Toropin and Aamer Madhani contributed to this report.
Burrows covers security, defense and intelligence for The Associated Press in Europe. She is based in London.
Exclusive: US Patriot missile stocks in Europe are ‘beyond critical’ due to Iran war, officials say
Scottie's Playtime 
Saw that coming.
Now someone explain to the crew in the Whitehouse that Western Europe is the USA’s first line of defence should Russia decide to minimise the USA in the World Power stakes. Like back in the Cold War Era. When the USA had forward based bomber squadrons in the UK, which was then unofficially known as ‘America’s Unsinkable Aircraft Carrier’.
And he hasn’t even defeated Iran either.
Then there’s the other question of the USA’s problems with maintaining a quality and quantity world spanning Naval Force and Trump’s interfering there too (What good news for Beijing with its ambitions in the Pacific and Taiwan)
Take care guys
Roger
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Roger. In the 1980s I was stationed in East Berlin. It was a grand post except. If the “ballon” went up we all knew the USSR would simply hang the tank turents over the walls with a sign that said welcome to POW camp Berlin. That was the joke we told ourselves. The truth was much worse. We were what was called “trip wires troops”.
If anywhere in Europe the USSR attacked those of us stationed in Europe were simply to delay and die until the main fighting force from the US mainland would get to the theater. We were planned to be expendable, but the delay we could provide was crucial to the war effort. We all knew that, well most of us thinking people did. We had no daydream we would survive a real war.
Yes you said Euorpe is the front line. That was the point from World War 2. We fight them over there, so we don’t have to fight them here. Clearly all tRump the current commander in chief knows about warfare is from a few WW2 movies he watched that were heavily skewed to make the US look like heroes and the good guys. The truth is the war was winding down by the time the US entered, and Hitler would have lost just later than he did.
As you say China and Russia are very happy with what tRump and Kegseth have done to the US military. But the bigger question is how the US spends nearly a trillion dollars a year for many years and we don’t even get one free war out of it. Yes, Trump and his drunken stupid bigoted misogynist racist Christian national defense secretary burned through our best missiles and munitions because they were sure the Iranians would fold once they saw how powerful the US was and how we could bomb them. Not realizing that Iran had been attacked and sanctioned for decades and they were not only used to it, they found true workarounds.
Each time the US said they could bring Iran to heel if we just increased this or that, Iran found workarounds. So how much can you make the rubble bounce until they don’t care? How many sanctions can you push that they will just ignore as you drive them into the hands of China and Russia? China just told the US publicly that they won’t honor any sanctions, and if the US interfers with their oil ships, it would be an act of war. The US doesn’t mess with ships flying the China flag. Hugs
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Scottie.
I’ve heard and read similar accounts from men who served in the BAOR (British Army of The Rhine), and was struck by the fatalism. Men from the Parachute Regiment who summed their role as being dropped in front or behind the enemy to cause as much delay, damage and chaos before being wiped out, men from the RAF regiment- infantry who guarded and patrolled the airbases buying time for aircraft to take off and fly to more secure bases.
The grim reality of war and the secrets only those on the front lines talk about needless to say I’m glad it didn’t happen back then.
I agree with you Scottie about the current mindset in the Whitehouse- Trump and Hesketh are of the type of class fools that turn up in History from time to time, living in their own vanity projects and paying for the other with other people’s lives.
Here’s actually a lesson from WWII and the Vietnam War, you don’t defeat another nation simply by airpower- A Iran led and controlled by a fundamentalist mindset that views death as a worthy sacrifice Nazi Germany and Militarised Japan held to those beliefs and had to be pummelled into the ground by WMD and overwhelming conventional forces. North Vietnam just dug in deep and had air defence logistics supplied by the USSR and China. Both descendants of those communist regimes would happily supply some aid to Iran (after all Russia owes Iran big for drones in Ukraine).
The current consensus is that in a global scale war involving the USA- alone; the USA could survive and Fortress America, but the standard of Life would be very, very basic. and my question is could a Trump or a descendant of Trump’s regime depend on the unconditional support of all the population?
And to conclude, apparently the USA naval forces are having trouble keeping abreast and up to date with sufficient forces. Those days of WWII when a pheromonal number of ships of all sorts were launched -long gone.
Take care guys.
Roger & Sheila
🙏🌈
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Roger. I agree. Plus as you say Iran can take a pounding and they have been under US sanctions and economic hardship that they are used to it. As you say airpower alone has never changed the system of government of a country. To do what Israel and tRump originally said they wanted to achieve would take more troops on the ground than the US has free to go to the country. As you see the Navy deployments were destroying the ships and crews. They had to take so many replacement units / ships from the Asian-Pacific Theater that the officer in charge said he couldn’t protect the US homeland nor Taiwan. They first pulled the air defense from Taiwan and then most of the craft in that area. China has moved more ships than ever around the island.
As you said in a war all production would have to be switched to supplying the needs of the military and as the US imports so much of our food that with tRump pissing off every other country and the possibility of our imports being destroyed, you are correct about the US standard of living. It would be a very sad country. But it would help the very wealthy transfer the rest of the countries wealth to themselves and the military they want to protect them. Then you add the need to draft people into the military to supply the troops, and as you mentioned tRump / his family, those in his cabinet, or anyone who has been in tRump’s orbit will be enemy #1 in the country.
Oh and as they say political people and the uneducated always prepare to fight the last war they won, not the war they have today. tRump is ordering the military to remove the much better magnet based system of launching planes from carriers and return to steam powered launchers. Plus he wants all the carriers to have the conning towers moved back to the middle of the ships. Because he likes the looks and sounds of them in the movies better than the new ships we have today. He has ordered new battleships when they are not used in any form of current navy battles. Better he have the Ukrainians show our people how to make cheap drones that really work. Hugs
LikeLike
My thought is this: Trump sends Radcliffe to Moscow to tell Putain not to attack the Americans because they cannot defend themselves successfully. Think about this for a minute. Trump is saying they have Iittle in the way of defensive weapons! He is announcing he is weak to an empire-building insane wannabe! I am a pacifist, but if I was Putain I would stop attacking Ukraine today, and turn my offence toward the USA, and inadvertently, toward Canada, and maybe even
Mexico. He already owns Siberia, he should want North America too!
In effect, Trump is sending an invitation to his crazy buddy who can easily think “Ukraine? Or North America?” A nation, or a whole continent full of 1000 times the resources in Ukraine, just a short step across the Bering Strait.
Putain would be stupid to not take that opportunity. Vladdy is not stupid!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Rawgod. While it is true that Putin definitely wants the Arctic, which is why tRump is trying to get Greenland for his master Putin. But Putin won’t attack Canada. It makes no sense. Distance wise and the fact is Canada has both friends that will help them and their own military forces.
No instead Putin wants the smaller former USSR satlight states he still thinks belong to Russia. Plus he has already sent drones to a German airport and made missile strikes on NATO countries near Ukraine. Putin thinks he is winning in his wars, and whatever he has on tRump he is sure will keep tRump from using the US military against him.
But Europe is already working with Canada to form a defense network, and when Europe thought tRump was willing to put troops in Greenland I posted how France and Spain sent their military to work with existing military to fight the US troops. Think of it, NATO countries getting ready to go to war with the US.
If Putin attacked Poland or one of the small former USSRs, he would have shorter logistic trains for supplies, and it would be a much quicker victor over much smaller territory. To take Canada, he has to move through Alaska and then to Canada. If Putin tried to take Alaska even tRump couldn’t stop what the US military would do under the Congress to stop him. That is a bridge too far, and the US people would rise up so Congress would have to act. Then he would face the Canadian military. He is getting his ass kicked by Ukraine, no way he wants to take on Canada as well. No it is not a likely scenario. Hugs
LikeLike