US President Donald Trump is reportedly frustrated that he has been misled over shortages of munitions that are now impacting options for continued military action against Iran.
Trump demanded answers from his Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, on being misled on the issue during a cabinet meeting at Camp David on 7 August, according to The Washington Post, adding that the shortages are impacting US military options against Iran.
The US has expended tens of thousands of munitions from its arsenal as part of its war on Iran, with several reports in recent days detailing that the military is dangerously low on several key munitions.
So which munitions are running low, how long would it take to replace them, and what does this mean for hotspots and conflicts around the world? The New Arab takes a look.
Is the US really out of interceptors?
Interceptors are believed to be particularly affected. They are key to defending against Iran's vast arsenal of ballistic missiles that have been the cornerstone of its retaliatory strikes throughout the region.
Nearly 80% of the US stockpile of interceptors has been depleted as the US has attempted to defend its bases from Iran's strikes, according to CNN.
This includes interceptors for its Patriot and THAAD batteries, both of which are key to intercepting the array of munitions that Iran fires, which also includes cruise missiles and drones.
According to the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the US had a prewar inventory of 2,200 Patriot missiles and 452 THAAD missiles.
Analysts told CNN that the US has a production rate of 20 Patriot missiles a month, though the Pentagon said there is a rough production rate of 600 missiles a year.
The Pentagon has since signed a contract to increase that production to 2,000 a year in an agreement with Lockheed Martin.
CSIS, however, estimates that it will take three-plus years to rebuild the stockpile of THAAD interceptors.
Earlier analysis of data from the Payne Institute for Public Policy (PIPP) for the RUSI think tank revealed that the US and Israel were mere days away from running out of interceptors if the current pace of conflict continued.
Are there any other munitions that the US is running out of?
Alongside interceptors, reports on US inventories have also detailed the expending of several other key offensive munitions that have been used by the US in its war on Iran.
This includes "virtually all" of the army's Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) and Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM), according to CNN.
The ATACMS is a tactical ballistic missile with a range of up to 300km. Videos of its use in the war by the US have surfaced online.
The PrSM is also a tactical ballistic missile, though more modern and intended to replace the ATACMS with its longer range and more advanced systems.
Alongside the two surface-to-surface systems, the US has fired thousands of Tomahawk cruise missiles, with CNN reporting in early April that 30% of all missiles had been expended during the war, while The Washington Post reported 850 missiles being fired in the war's first month.
Previous analysis from PIPP data for RUSI detailed that it would take at least 5 years to replenish its own estimates of 500 Tomahawks fired in the first 16 days of war, an estimate expected to be much higher following several rounds of clashes between the US and Iran.
What doe this mean for other conflicts?
It's not just Trump and Hegseth who will be concerned over the diminished stockpile of US munitions fired over the course of the war.
The US is one of the biggest arms manufacturers in the world, with countries around the world using US-made systems and procuring US-made weaponry for their own defences.
Gulf countries are likely to be particularly affected. They not only rely on the US military for their own protection, but their own militaries also utilise US-made systems such as Patriot missiles for defence against Iranian attacks.
Munitions shortages and manufacturing constraints are set to leave the region vulnerable to Iranian attacks if full-scale war breaks out again.
Likewise, Ukraine has relied on Patriot batteries to shoot down Russian ballistic missiles that have, for over four years now, been raining down on Ukrainian cities.
Ukraine has recently requested that it produce its own Patriot missiles in a bid to circumvent US manufacturing constraints.
The country has also used ATACMS missiles in its war against Russia.
In Asia, the shortage of interceptors has been noted by security analysts as potentially affecting the US's ability to confront any possible Chinese attempt to take Taiwan.
China has built its own stockpile of ballistic missiles, including vaunted "carrier killers", which would likely see widespread use in a bid to stop any US response to an invasion of Taiwan.
Without the necessary stockpile of interceptors, defending against waves of Chinese ballistic missiles will prove much more difficult than US attempts at parrying Iran's missiles, which have killed and injured hundreds of service personnel and damaged or destroyed key installations and assets in the region.