Mike Waltz slams reports that US military running low on missiles as Iran strikes called off, says leakers ‘deserve to be in jail’

Last week, all indications were that the United States military was going to launch a major series of attacks against Iran over the weekend.

Donald Trump said the United States was “locked and loaded” for a “massive attack” and vowed that the nation was to face “major military punishment”. In the end, that didn’t happen.

Mike Waltz, US ambassador to the United Nations, was interviewed by Fox News and said Trump was “giving talks some space… giving it a little bit of room”. But he was also asked by NBC News whether one of the reasons the attack didn’t take place was because the military is running out of air interceptor missiles.

Waltz was quizzed about a report that there is a “diminishing munition supply” that has forced military commanders to pick and choose which Iranian attacks to intercept, with the report claiming they’re “letting some Iranian projectiles” through the defenses.

In response, Waltz said: “I want to be crystal clear: The U.S. military, and I’ve verified this every which way, has everything that it needs to conduct this campaign as effectively as it needs to be. And I have to tell you, the people that are leaking this nonsense deserve to be in jail.”

Pete Hegseth has acknowledged that missile supplies are running low, but described it as a “manufactured story” and, if there is a shortage, it’s because of the Biden administration.

He said the Trump administration “inherited a depleted situation from not only Ukraine, but also the ongoing fight with the Houthis under the Biden administration and a depleted military under the Biden administration.” He also admitted that it could take “months and years” to rebuild the munitions stockpile.

NPR recently interviewed retired US Marine Colonel Mark Cancian of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, who said this shortage has created a “window of vulnerability” for US defense:

“The U.S. arsenal is depleted. Some elements are quite depleted. We looked at seven munitions that have been heavily used in the war against Iran. Half of them, we’ve used a quarter to a third, and about half of them, we’ve used half of the available inventories, and that creates a what we call a window of vulnerability.

There are alternatives, but the alternatives involve greater risk. So it will take several years – one to five – to replace these and then another several years after that to get to where the war planners want to be.”

Cancian also underlined that replenishing these stocks isn’t easy or quick: “To increase production you have to hire more workers, you have to build plants. So it will be several years before we start seeing these additional capabilities coming online.”

He went on to say that he believes this missile shortage makes the United States weaker in a theoretical war with China, “It’s really China that is the concern here. Other conflicts, we probably have enough, and, of course, we have allies and partners. But against China, that would demand all of the capabilities the United States has.”