Pentagon races to buy 10X more missiles as Iran war dwindles arsenal, threatens readiness for China aggression

Army's fiscal 2027 budget more than quadruples its PAC-3 MSE acquisition objective to 13,773 missiles amid China concerns

Morgan Phillips / Fox News  

The Pentagon is preparing a dramatic course correction after years of purchasing key missile-defense interceptors in relatively modest numbers — even as China built up the world's largest arsenal of conventional ballistic and cruise missiles and the U.S. increasingly focused on the threat of a conflict in the Indo-Pacific.

Following a string of missile-heavy conflicts, U.S. air defenses have been used repeatedly to protect Israel, American forces in the Middle East and Navy ships in the Red Sea, drawing down some of the Pentagon's most sophisticated and difficult-to-replace munitions.

The Pentagon's abrupt course correction raises a question that has taken on new urgency after years of missile-intensive warfare: Why did the U.S. wait so long to build deeper interceptor magazines? Read more, see photos, and video here.