U.S. Tomahawks are being used in Iran war faster than stockpile is being refilled

Washington — The U.S. has truthful acold utilized hundreds of Tomahawk cruise missiles against Iran, according to 2 sources acquainted with the matter, respective times much than the fig procured for the subject each year. 

One of the sources said implicit 850 person been utilized truthful acold in the conflict, a fig that is astir 9 times the fig of Tomahawks the Pentagon buys connected mean each year. This fig was archetypal reported by the Washington Post. 

The maximum complaint of accumulation is estimated to beryllium 2,330 per year: Three contracts from Raytheon each person a capableness of 600 and a BAE has a declaration to nutrient up to 530 missiles per year, according to a study from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, which cites Pentagon fund documents.

However, the existent procurement complaint for the U.S. subject is astir 90 per year, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The Navy requested lone 57 missiles for fiscal twelvemonth 2026, according to Defense Department fund documents. 

In total, it's estimated the Pentagon has astir 3,100 oregon truthful Tomahawk missiles successful its inventory, according to Kelly Grieco, a elder chap astatine the Stimson Center. 

"It's been recognized that we don't person capable long-range onslaught capability, truthful we've been trying to physique up these stockpiles, but we support depleting them," Grieco told CBS News. 

Raytheon, oregon RTX, precocious announced a model statement with the Defense Department to standard up to 1,000 missiles for the U.S. per twelvemonth implicit respective years. 

What is simply a Tomahawk rocket and what U.S. subject services usage them?

A Tomahawk cruise missile, launched from Navy destroyers and submarines, tin question much than 1,000 miles and onslaught with singular precision, adjacent against targets protected by blase aerial defenses. Developed during the Cold War and continually upgraded since, it has go 1 of the Pentagon's astir dependable long-range weapons. 

The rocket is operated chiefly by the U.S. Navy, but successful caller years has besides been adopted by the Marine Corps and the Army, reflecting a broader displacement toward long-range precision weapons crossed the services. Allied militaries, including Britain's Royal Navy, besides tract the system. No grounds has travel to airy that would suggest that Iran uses oregon has obtained Tomahawk missiles for use. 

According to Pentagon data, the Tomahawk has been flight-tested much than 550 times and utilized operationally successful implicit 2,300 strikes, according to Raytheon, the defence manufacturer. In conflicts from Iraq to Syria and precocious successful the U.S.-Israel warfare with Iran, Tomahawks are often utilized arsenic the limb of archetypal edifice erstwhile American commanders question to deed distant oregon heavy defended targets without risking pilots. 

How overmuch bash Tomahawks cost? 

Costs tin alteration depending connected what mentation of the Tomahawk the U.S. is purchasing but the rocket costs astir $2.2 cardinal and a launcher is much than $6 cardinal for ground-based versions. Tomahawks launched by the U.S. Navy from destroyers oregon submarines are susceptible of striking moving ships and tin travel successful astatine much than $4 million.

Tomahawks are conscionable 1 of the precocious munitions the U.S. has been using.

Democratic Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the ranking subordinate of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said astatine a proceeding earlier this week that U.S. Forces person fired "thousands of Tomahawks, Precision Strike Missiles, and different long-range violative weapons into Iran, portion besides utilizing Patriot, THAAD, and Standard Missile interceptors astatine an alarming rate." 

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the U.S. is ramping up the defence concern basal successful an effort to  nutrient captious munitions faster. 

"We're reviving our defence concern basal and rebuilding the arsenal of freedom," Hegseth said astatine a quality league past week, adding that caller deals would chopped "long pb times connected exquisite munitions." 

"We're going to beryllium refilled faster than anyone imagined," Hegseth said. 

How galore Tomahawks has the U.S. utilized since the strikes against Iran's atomic facilities successful June 2025?

While there's nary authoritative cumulative full publically available, the American subject has utilized adjacent to 1,000 Tomahawk missiles and possibly adjacent much betwixt strikes connected Iran, operations successful Yemen and the Red Sea, Nigeria and different conflicts since June 2025, according to aggregate quality estimates and weapons experts. 

File: The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Thomas Hudner (DDG-116) fires a Tomahawk land-attack rocket astatine oversea connected March 1, 2026. U.S. Navy / Getty Images

How accelerated tin the U.S. nutrient Tomahawks missiles currently? 

Production of the Tomahawk cruise rocket has struggled to support gait with its increasing use. In caller years,industry has produced lone a twelve to a fewer 100 missiles annually for the U.S. nether modular procurement cycles, according to Defense Department fund documents, a complaint acold beneath what could beryllium expended successful adjacent a short, high-intensity conflict. Officials and defence analysts person agelong said that the constraint is not simply funding, but structural limits successful a defence concern basal designed for predictable request alternatively than accelerated wartime expansion. 

How galore Tomahawks would the U.S. similar to nutrient successful the future? 

Recent Defense Department notices amusement there's been an progressive effort to grow Tomahawk capacity. RTX announced past period yearly Tomahawk accumulation would summation to much than 1,000 per twelvemonth nether caller agreements. 

But those efforts look to tally implicit aggregate years and is not an contiguous wartime snapback. 

Separately, a September 2025 Pentagon contract notice says Raytheon received backing for engineering to heighten the accumulation capableness of the Tomahawk All Up Round rocket system, with enactment to beryllium completed successful March 2028. 

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• Iran