[ZERO] As soon as the feds announced Jeffrey Epstein killed himself while awaiting prosecution on charges of sex trafficking, the popular reaction was disbelief: "Jeffrey Epstein didn’t kill himself" quickly became an internet meme. And now, with the release of the Epstein Files, it’s only become harder — if not all but impossible — to believe the official story that Jeffrey Epstein hanged himself in the Manhattan Correctional Center on August 10, 2019.
The "Suicide"
The DoJ’s Inspector General released a report that officially concluded there was no reason to doubt the suicide story, but actually contains many disturbing details if you read the included evidence. As summarized by JustFacts:
Federal prison officials placed Epstein in a cell with a murderous, hulking ex-cop — a death trap for any child molester.
Less than two weeks later, prison guards found Epstein in the middle of the night in a semiconscious state with a rope and "friction marks" around his neck.
Despite a court order requiring the prison to preserve video surveillance footage near Epstein’s cell during the strangulation, federal prison officials failed to do so and also lost the backup due to "technical errors."
Federal prison officials took Epstein off "suicide watch" just one day after the strangulation without determining whether Epstein was attacked by his cellmate or tried to commit suicide.
One day before Epstein’s death, federal prison officials removed his new cellmate and didn’t replace him. They did this even though a prison psychologist sent an email to over 70 prison staffers stating that Epstein "needs" a cellmate — a common suicide prevention measure.
One day before Epstein’s death, a federal court unsealed more than 2,000 pages of lawsuit records that named and implicated wealthy and powerful people in Epstein’s sex crimes, as well as federal officials in covering up the crimes.
One day before Epstein’s death, federal prison officials permitted Epstein to make a completely unmonitored phone call in direct violation of prison policy and under patently false pretenses.
Federal officers placed a hoard of linens in Epstein’s cell, which is commonly prohibited because they can be used to create nooses.
Federal officers left Epstein alone in his cell for nearly eight hours on the night he died — despite the fact that they were required to check on all inmates in his unit "at least twice per hour" and were only 15 feet from Epstein’s cell.
Federal officers falsified records to show that they had checked on Epstein, a violation of federal law punishable by up to five years in prison.
Federal prosecutors "dismissed all charges pending against" the two officers who falsified the records and "declined" to prosecute others who "falsely certified inmate countslips and round sheets on the day before and the day of Epstein’s death."
Federal prison officials failed to record footage from 9 of the 11 surveillance cameras around Epstein’s cell on the night of his death, including one that showed Epstein’s cell tier and cell door.
The FBI agents who searched Epstein’s New York mansion found and then abandoned a sexually explicit trove of photos and CDs labeled with the names of "young" females alongside people other than Epstein. This allowed one of Epstein’s most notorious accomplices to take the evidence and potentially scrub it before giving it to the feds.
To this day, the federal government hasn’t revealed the names of the people that were written beside the "young" females on Epstein’s CDs.
Hours before Epstein’s reported suicide, he made an unmonitored call to his girlfriend, Karyna Shuliak. She told friends Epstein gave no indication he was thinking of harming himself. The New York Times asked the Bureau of Prisons for his full call logs; "those logs show only one social call during his stay, more than a week earlier, to Shuliak." In other words, the logs omitted this critical call. To date there is no knowledge of its contents, beyond Shuliak saying Epstein appeared to be in good spirits.
#3
Currently, I am beginning to listen to the people that say he’s not dead. On their side - he couldn’t have been stupid enough not to have implemented a kill switch. Against - the doctor who examined him and says he was strangled. If he was part of it, he would have confirmed the original autopsy. If he was not part of the conspiracy, how could he not know that it wasn’t Epstein?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/25/2026 6:05 Comments ||
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#4
Open his grave(s)
According to the National Enquirer he could be in unmarked grave in a mausoleum located in Montefiore Cemetery in New York. The burial site is located in block 327 of the cemetery next to Paula Epstien who died in 2004 .
Or he could be in Palm Beach Gardens, in Florida.
Or IJ Morris Star of David Cemetery in Florida.
Put on a Tin Hat.... you are more likely to get it right than what is being passed around as facts.
Either way having a $545 Million estate pays for a lot.
Like planting a similar looking body, Plastic Surgery and relocation and etc...
Both Mrs. von der Leyen and her husband are physicians. They have seven children. Though he is a member of the aristocratic von der Leyen family, as far as I can tell he is not a scion of the baronial branch. The family made their money as silk weavers, so perhaps that is from where her attitude stems, unlike the more militarized segments of the aristocracy.
Despite her enthusiasm for sending other people's children to the frontlines of war, Ursula von der Leyen laughs at the idea of her own children serving in the military. 😳 pic.twitter.com/HcgyMK1AMI
While the media is focused on the Evil Whites Europeans side.
They and the usual race pimps for $$$$, tend to overlook that slavery is still very much practiced by:
Most of Africa,
the Middle & Far East,
Arabs & Communist / National Socialists Gov's.
SOME OVERLOOKED FACTS REGARDING SLAVERY
A vast majority of the millions of slaves brought to the Americas, were captured by other Africans and sold to the slave traders.
In fact many a Rich $$$ Northern Family owned the slave ships. They also controlled the shipping of produced items from Southern Plantations.
The US Northern States were the major purchasers of Southern slave states goods, foods and etc.
The Northern US States had it share of legally owned Slaves right up to the 1860's and some still years AFTER the Civil War was over.
The South has more freed slaves walking the streets than the North.
The Northern version was called Indentured slaves servants.
It was practiced under the table all the way into the 1900's.
There were about 4,000 black slave owners in the US in 1860. US Black owning Blacks was close to 100,000 slaves.
OBTW:
One of the 1st documented slave owners in American Colonies was Anthony Johnson (he was black) he even took his case to court and won ownership of John Casor (sp), around 1620
#2
The Northern US States had it share of legally owned Slaves right up to the 1860's and some still years AFTER the Civil War was over.
That would be Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware which did not secede from the union and therefore were not subject to the Emancipation Proclamation. However, the 13th Amendment ended all slavery. BTW, the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 barred entry of slavery in the territory that would become Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin.
Indenturing involved a contract based upon an agreement between two parties. Today that is still practiced in a modified form for professional sports. Some technical companies claim 'ownership' of the skills of certain employees that by agreement can't sell their skill and services to another employer in the same field.
[Reuters] China is conducting a vast undersea mapping and monitoring operation across the Pacific, Indian and Arctic oceans, building detailed knowledge of marine conditions that naval experts say would be crucial for waging submarine warfare against the United States and its allies.
In one example, the Dong Fang Hong 3, a research vessel operated by Ocean University of China, spent 2024 and 2025 sailing back and forth in the seas near Taiwan and the U.S. stronghold of Guam, and around strategic stretches of the Indian Ocean, ship-tracking data reviewed by Reuters shows. In October 2024, it checked on a set of powerful Chinese ocean sensors capable of identifying undersea objects near Japan, according to Ocean University, and visited the same area again last May. And in March 2025, it criss-crossed the waters between Sri Lanka and Indonesia, covering approaches to the Malacca Strait, a critical chokepoint for maritime commerce.
#1
If you know where the objects are you know your position.
Posted by: Old Salty ||
03/25/2026 11:50 Comments ||
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#2
Also makes it easier to create 'flight paths' for deep underwater long range drones.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
03/25/2026 17:16 Comments ||
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#3
We did something similar across western Europe between the world wars, then used it to prepare oodles of point to point tank artillery coordinates, as I recall.
HONG KONG, March 25 (Reuters Breakingviews) - To open-source or not may soon be the trickiest question facing China's top artificial intelligence companies. The $300 billion Alibaba (9988.HK), opens new tab and compatriots made most of their models free and available for anyone to use, which in turn has accelerated innovation and adoption across the country. Even U.S. firms have benefitted. But mounting investor pressure to generate a profit, as well as geopolitical pressures, may prompt a rethink to prioritise proprietary breakthroughs instead.
This week, buzzy San Francisco-based coding startup Cursor AI acknowledged, opens new tab its latest "frontier-level" model was built on an open-source one owned by up-and-coming Chinese AI lab Moonshot. It's an awkward situation: Cursor, backed by heavyweights including Andreessen Horowitz and Google (GOOGL.O), opens new tab, is in talks to raise funds at a $50 billion valuation, Bloomberg reported this month, citing sources. That's nearly double the worth it secured in November and more than two and a half times that of Moonshot, opens new tab.
It also underscores a new reality in Silicon Valley and beyond: startups and more established companies alike are increasingly eschewing pricey proprietary models from OpenAI and others for free or low-cost Chinese versions which are rapidly closing the performance gap despite Washington's export curbs and sanctions. Rankings on OpenRouter, a platform that lets developers access and use different models, currently show 7 of the 10 most popular offerings are Chinese; companies from Airbnb (ABNB.O), opens new tab to German industrial giant Siemens (SIEGn.DE), opens new tab have made no secret about using models from the People's Republic.
[9news] As the Middle East conflict continues to drift into unchartered territory, fuel fears continue to escalate and prices are skyrocketing around the world.
Prices are reaching close to $3 a litre for petrol and diesel in parts of the country, and some petrol stations in both cities and rural towns are running out altogether.
The government has insisted there is no issue of fuel supply, but how much fuel is actually left in Australia?
HOW MUCH FUEL DOES AUSTRALIA HAVE LEFT?
It is difficult to come up with an exact figure of fuel that Australia can use, but energy minister Chris Bowen gave a hint in an interview yesterday.
"Supply of petrol has gone up a little bit, [we have] 38 days worth of supply," he said on ABC's Insiders.
"Diesel and jet fuel [are] both at 30 days, which is pretty flat and that indicates that while we've released more from the strategic reserve, the ships continue to arrive in good numbers.
Bowen said the figures were updated just a day before, and he insisted Australia's refineries were working at full capacity and only focused on getting fuel to Australian suppliers, not foreign exports.
This has remained steady at levels seen at the start of the conflict earlier this month.
WHERE DOES AUSTRALIA GET ITS PETROL FROM?
Australia gets most of its oil from overseas; in fact, just 10 per cent comes locally.
That said, almost none of it comes from the Middle East region; instead, Australia gets much of its oil from Asian countries.
While you may think this means Australia shouldn't be hit hard by a conflict in the Middle East, think again.
South Korea and Singapore are the biggest suppliers of Australia's oil, with Malaysia, India, Taiwan and China also contributing highly.
However, these countries get most of their oil from the Persian Gulf region, including Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the UAE, Qatar and Oman.
All of these countries have not only been impacted by Iranian strikes, but are also unable to get ships through the Strait of Hormuz due to Iran's blocking of it.
Posted by: Clem+Elmish4239 ||
03/25/2026 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1770 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
[YahooFinance] The U.S. government is insolvent. That’s not hyperbole — it’s the conclusion drawn directly from the Treasury Department’s own consolidated financial statements for fiscal year 2025, released last week to near-total media silence. The numbers: $6.06 trillion in total assets against $47.78 trillion in total liabilities as of September 30, 2025.
Importantly, the $47.78 trillion in reported liabilities does not include the unfunded obligations of social insurance programs like Social Security and Medicare — those are disclosed separately in the off-balance-sheet Statement of Social Insurance (SOSI).
The government’s consolidated balance sheet position, excluding the SOSI, deteriorated by nearly $2.07 trillion between FY 2024 and FY 2025, reaching a staggering negative $41.72 trillion. Total liabilities are now nearly eight times the value of reported assets. The largest drivers were a $2 trillion increase in federal debt and interest payable (now $30.33 trillion) and a $438.8 billion increase in federal employee and veteran benefits payable (now $15.47 trillion).
THE OFF-BALANCE-SHEET ICEBERG
The off-balance-sheet picture is even more alarming. The 75-year unfunded social insurance obligation surged by $10.1 trillion in a single year, rising from $78.3 trillion in FY 2024 to $88.4 trillion in FY 2025 — driven primarily by a $6.9 trillion jump in projected Medicare Part B shortfalls and a $2.5 trillion increase for Social Security. The Treasury’s Statement of Long-Term Fiscal Projections shows the 75-year fiscal gap widening from 4.3% of GDP in FY 2024 to 4.7% in FY 2025.
If the $88.4 trillion in 75-year off-balance-sheet obligations were added to the $47.8 trillion in official balance sheet liabilities, total federal obligations would now exceed $136.2 trillion — roughly five times U.S. annual GDP.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a disclaimer of opinion on the U.S. government’s FY 2025 financial statements — the 29th consecutive year it has been unable to determine whether the statements are fairly presented. This is primarily due to serious, ongoing financial management problems at the Department of Defense and weaknesses in accounting for interagency transactions.
WHAT $136 TRILLION LOOKS LIKE IN YOUR LIVING ROOM
Not only has the financial press ignored the consolidated financial statements, but most members of Congress and members of the general public will not read the consolidated financial statements. Documents like the consolidated financial statements are not the kind of thing you want to read before driving. If that’s not bad enough, most people cannot relate to the trillion-dollar numbers in the financial statements. Therefore, it is appropriate to translate them into terms that people will understand.
Most people cannot relate to trillion-dollar figures on a government ledger. So consider this: divide every number by 100 million — drop eight zeros — and federal finances look like a household budget in freefall.
That household earns $52,446 and spends $73,378 — running a $20,932 annual deficit. Its total liabilities and unfunded promises amount to $1,361,788 against just $60,554 in assets, leaving it $1.3 million in the hole. Uncle Sam, by any accounting standard, is insolvent.
Congress has clearly lost control of the nation’s finances. America is facing a fiscal catastrophe. The reckoning, long deferred, is becoming impossible to ignore.
TWO BILLS THAT COULD CHANGE EVERYTHING
Addressing this crisis — and preventing recurrence — requires two specific legislative actions.
First, Congress should pass the bipartisan H.R. 3289 — Fiscal Commission Act, sponsored by Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-MI), Rep. Scott Peters (D-CA), and 41 co-sponsors. Such a commission would force a public reckoning with the facts, the trade-offs, and the hard choices that restoring fiscal health requires.
Second, Congress should call an Article V Convention limited to proposing a fiscal responsibility amendment to the U.S. Constitution. H.Con.Res. 15, sponsored by Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-TX), would do exactly that.
Modeled on Switzerland’s Debt Brake, such an amendment would mandate a balanced budget over the business cycle and prohibit federal spending from growing faster than the U.S. economy.
These two bills represent the most credible path forward — if Congress has the will to act.
#1
If they gut everything that the federal government isn't authorized to do, per the 10th Amendment, it probably would balance. A lot of that as we are seeing is just graft and looting of the treasury.
#2
While it's not wrong in the numbers, Yahoo Finance is worse than worthless in their outlook due to their TDS. Currently, all market futures are +1.00% or more (S&P, Dow, with NASDAQ at +1.21%), yet YF is all doom and gloom stories. Things were sooo much better back in the Build Back Better Biden years, right?
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/25/2026 8:00 Comments ||
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Posted by: Frank G ||
03/25/2026 8:18 Comments ||
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#4
^ "Things are good or getting better, but they *could* get worse, so we should all run around with our hair on fire. And what if things get worse than than? AIEEE!"
[AT] Tucker Carlson has recently decided that America would benefit from ceding power to the Chinese and implementing, even if only a little, Sharia law. I wonder if this increasingly despicable man has finally “jumped the shark.”
That phrase, for those who don’t know, originated to describe the moment when a popular TV show suddenly collapses because its writers have run out of decent ideas and are scraping the bottom of the barrel. Now, the phrase has expanded to encompass any situation in which someone has parted ways with sane functionality and opted for serious weirdness to remain relevant.
And this brings us to Tucker Carlson, once the most popular news show host in America. Every weeknight, there he’d be, looking mostly serious but kind of silly, and dispensing core conservative news and opinion.
Tucker entertainingly spoke about strong borders, common sense, pro-American, education, restraining the increasingly out-of-control LGBTQ+ agenda, not committing to a boots-on-the-ground war in Ukraine, maintaining fiscal responsibility, etc. Regarding Ukraine, that made sense. Tucker obviously wasn’t an interventionist, but after watching Democrats replicate the Vietnam template by giving up victories in both Iraq and Afghanistan, many Americans found that reasonable.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/25/2026 05:38 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1805 views]
Top|| File under: Nut Jobs
[The Federalist] The Federalist’s Senior Legal Correspondent Margot Cleveland took the disgraced Biden-era FBI and DOJ to task on Tuesday during testimony before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee in a hearing on the lawfare efforts against President Donald Trump.
"After the 2020 election, an anti-Trump FBI agent named Tim Thibault attempted to use the Justice Department to destroy the president. Thibault’s efforts led to the launch of Arctic Frost," Cleveland began.
Senate Republicans revealed in late 2025 that Biden’s DOJ and FBI compiled an "enemies list" of Republicans, going so far as to seize phone records of several Republican senators as part of their "get-Trump" lawfare efforts. As Cleveland previously explained, Arctic Frost was designed to "target Republicans in key battleground states," and the investigation would ultimately lead to Special Counsel Jack Smith’s elector case against Trump.
"As this committee well knows — because many of you were victims — Smith approved the subpoenas" to obtain toll records from several Republican senators. Notably, a subpoena for records from Sen. Ted Cruz fell flat after Cruz’s cellphone provider challenged the legality of the subpoena.
"You also know that Smith’s team sought a nondisclosure order from Chief Judge James Boasberg — apparently without informing him that the targets were members of Congress," Cleveland pointed out, adding that "Cruz’s request for the nondisclosure application to be unsealed has been ignored."
"Judge Boasberg still failed to order Smith and his prosecutors to show cause for why they should not be held in contempt for concealing the members of Congress were the ones who were being targeted. This fact should not be ignored," she continued. Cleveland then questioned Boasberg’s actions in light of the assertion that he did not know the identities of the subpoena targets. If he hadn’t known the identities, Cleveland argued, he would likely "enter a show-cause order to hold Smith accountable for violating your rights."
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/25/2026 11:46 Comments ||
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#2
@1 Maybe.
Or they are waiting until late August to early September when a trial(s) can help the Republicans in the mid -terms.
Or they are waiting until after the election because trial(s) would hurt the Republicans in the mid -terms.
Or maybe they flipped one or more of the lower level people and are building a case against someone much bigger, but have to be careful because of moles still in place at DOJ & FBI
[WND] Hoover Institution senior fellow Victor Davis Hanson said Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom constantly expresses himself inappropriately during a Tuesday episode of "Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words."
Newsom has boosted his public profile by crudely attacking President Donald Trump and conducting interviews to promote his memoir amid speculation that he will mount a 2028 presidential bid. On his Daily Signal show, Hanson highlighted several recent examples of Newsom's conduct that he found objectionable.
"Just think of what he said the last few days, last few weeks. He told the European leaders that they basically need to take their knee pads off," Hanson said. "In other words, they crouch down before Trump and perform a foul sex act upon him. That's what he said."
Newsom in January displayed knee pads that he sells on his website while at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, claiming they were designed for leaders who were "selling out" to the Trump administration, CNBC reported.
Hanson also criticized Newsom's team over his press office's March 16 X post containing a cartoon image of YouTuber Nick Shirley asking to see the children at a daycare. The post came shortly after Shirley published a video in which he claimed to document over $170 million in taxpayer fraud in California.
"And then his team, when the brave young kid who was trying to expose all of the fraud and help the taxpayer comes to California, he tweets out that he's a — with pictures as if he's a sexual predator," Hanson said, referring to Shirley.
Yeah, Newsome is all that and probably worse. But he can launder money like a sumbitch and that makes him useful to a certain class of grifter. Take the Train to Nowhere. Billions of dollars spent and nothing to show for it, except that a whole lot of people got paid.
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozin, originally published in TASS:
[ColonelCassad] My article for TASS discusses the shortage of air defense missiles in the US and Israel and Iran's strategy for a war of attrition. "MISSILE SHORTAGE."
As the war in the Middle East unfolds, the issue of the resources expended by both sides to maintain the pace and scale of mutual attacks is increasingly being discussed. After all, the expenditure of weapons in the US and Israeli operation against Iran also impacts other regions, particularly supplies.
Key Variables: In this regard, it should be taken into account that the number of hypersonic, ballistic, cruise missiles, drones, and air defense missiles at the beginning of the war, as well as their current daily production rates, are critical.
Currently, of course, there is no precise and reliable data on how many missiles of various types and UAVs Iran had at the start of the war on February 28, 2026. It is also unknown what volume of industrial production of these strike weapons Tehran was able to maintain after 24 days of hostilities. Similarly, there is no publicly available information on the number of anti-ballistic missile (ABM) and air defense systems, or various strike weapons, available to the US and Israel at the start of their joint operation.
Their production volumes are also unknown. Essentially, these are the key variables that prevent a highly accurate assessment of how the war of attrition between the two sides is actually unfolding. It is important to note that, when launching Operation Epic Fury, the US and Israel clearly counted on a blitzkrieg, a decapitating strike against the Iranian leadership, an internal uprising, and a general Iranian capitulation. This led to the excessive expenditure of strike weapons and anti-aircraft missiles in the first week of the war, especially in the Persian Gulf countries.
This approach, although seemingly excessive, is considered "acceptable" tactically in the event of a quick victory that would "write off" everything. However, the US and Israel failed to achieve their overall objectives.
Iran, from the very beginning, was betting on disrupting the aggressors' blitzkrieg plan and forcing them into a course of attrition, whereby the resource and cost factors would outweigh the attackers' technological advantage. Tehran made no secret of the fact that in the initial days, it was primarily launching older missiles from its 2010-2014 stockpiles (Fattah-1, Fattah-2, and Ghadr). This was done, in part, to force the use of expensive interceptor missiles stockpiled in the region to shoot them down, having expended most of its cheaper missiles. It also ensured the freedom to employ more powerful and modern weapons as the enemy's stockpiles dwindled and the consolidated US and Israeli air defenses began prioritizing what to shoot down and what not.
According to initial estimates, the aggressors were expected to reach exhaustion within 10-12 days of the war's onset, with a high rate of missile and drone launches and their subsequent exchange for air defense and missile defense missiles. The situation for the US and Israel was further exacerbated by the fact that the Gulf states' armies were not shy about spending millions of dollars' worth of air defense missiles on conventional Shahed-136 kamikaze drones, which cost no more than $20,000—an utter disaster from an economic perspective.
Iran was undoubtedly drawing on the experience of the summer of 2025, when, after massive strikes during Operation True Promise 3, Israel began to experience problems intercepting even individual missiles on the seventh or eighth day due to the rapid depletion of its anti-missile stockpiles. As a result, by the end of that period of escalation, Iran was launching significantly fewer missiles than at its outset, but was achieving significant success, striking valuable strategic targets in Israel that had previously been considered inaccessible due to its multilayered air defense system. Naturally, learning from this experience, both sides drew their own conclusions while simultaneously increasing their ammunition stockpiles.
Israel and the United States not only stockpiled air and missile defense missiles for systems such as THAAD, Patriot PAC-3, Arrow 2 and Arrow 3 (Hetz), and SM-3, but also placed significant emphasis on destroying Iran's launchers and "missile cities" in the first days of aggression, in order to reduce Tehran's ability to wage a war of attrition. Subsequent events have shown that this strategy failed to disrupt Iran's missile potential, which continues not only to intensively strike targets in the region but also to employ increasingly sophisticated missiles like the Nasrallah and the modernized Khorramshahr-4.
Iran apparently moved some production underground, using the infrastructure of its "missile cities," creating a massive number of decoys. Moreover, in addition to relying on a prolonged campaign of missile and drone strikes, Iran was preparing, if necessary, to attack key US radars in the region to reduce the aggressors' ability to detect and intercept their ballistic missiles early. In the first days, key US radars in Jordan, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq were destroyed. Incidentally, this included the AN/FPS-132 radar in Qatar, which could track launches in Russia and China, among other areas. Several radars for the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system, as well as various short- and medium-range radars, were also destroyed. This partially blinded US and Israeli air defenses, allowing Iran to achieve high effectiveness in destroying their targets even while intensively depleting interceptor missiles.
PRODUCTION CRISIS
In such a situation, the ability of the parties to produce drones and missiles becomes critical, as the war could last for several months.
While Iranian figures are simply unknown, the West is increasingly raising the issue of depleting current stockpiles of interceptor missiles in the Middle East theater of operations (TOO), which affects both the US Army and the IDF (which conceals production volumes for Arrow-2 and Arrow-3 missiles—according to the IRGC, they are insufficient), as well as the armies of the Persian Gulf monarchies. Nevertheless, back in 2024, the Netanyahu government allocated additional funds for the production of interceptor missiles for the Arrow-3 system as a key element in the fight against Iranian ballistic and hypersonic missiles.
As of early 2026, the American defense industry corporation Lockheed Martin reported that the US annually produces 620 missiles for the Patriot PAC-3 air defense system. The company plans to increase missile production to 2,000 units per year by 2033. The average price of a single missile ranges from $4 million to $5 million.
The situation with missiles for the THAAD missile defense system is even worse. According to Lockheed Martin, only 96 interceptors are being produced annually as of early 2026. By 2033, production is planned to increase to 400 per year. It's worth noting that the US already used up a significant portion of its stockpiles during the escalation in the summer of 2025, and the 2026 war is raging with significantly greater intensity. Therefore, I conclude that such a production level truly cannot meet demand (not even considering the high cost of these missiles—one THAAD costs $12.77 million).
Problems have also arisen with the high consumption of SM-3 sea-based anti-aircraft missiles. At early 2026, only 96 were being produced annually, but now plans call for up to 360 by 2033. Significantly, during the 12 days of the June 2025 war, the US fired, according to official figures, 80 SM-3 missiles—essentially a year's worth of production. Similar problems persist with SM-2 and SM-6 anti-aircraft missiles, of which 268 and 280 were used in the wars against Yemen and Iran from October 2023 to June 2025, respectively.
Following the onset of the current aggression against Iran and the failure of initial plans, the White House administration demanded that the largest US defense companies quadruple their production of weapons and ammunition as quickly as possible. Washington's arsenals were depleted by the excessive expenditure of various missiles in the war against Iran, as well as by the previous deliveries of ammunition to Kyiv.
Later, the Pentagon, according to media reports, announced the need to allocate an additional $200 billion for the war in the Middle East. Part of this is planned to be spent on urgent procurement of cruise and ballistic missiles, as well as air and missile defense systems, and on ramping up production ahead of previously planned dates. However, production and reimbursement take time, and the missiles are needed now.
DELAYED CONSEQUENCES
Ultimately, the US has apparently found itself in a situation where it is forced to resort to redeploying resources from the Indo-Pacific region. For example, from the priority anti-China target, the THAAD system (radar and missiles) and a Patriot PAC-3 air defense system battery from South Korea.
The situation could also impact Ukraine. The US is currently unlikely to be able to provide Kyiv with missiles for eight or nine Patriot air defense systems, which are using up their last winter supply and have no idea when they will receive the next one. This is taking into account a similar shortage of missiles for the Italian-French SAMP/T air defense system.
The severity of the crisis is underscored by the latest "delivery" from Europe, when Germany agreed to donate five missiles for the Patriot air defense system at once, on the condition that other NATO countries provide an additional 30. This took almost three months. Moreover, a full-fledged battery could destroy this entire supply in a single salvo, as happened, for example, in 2024, when a Kinzhal hypersonic missile hit a Patriot air defense system position at the Zhulyany airfield, despite 32 missiles being fired.
The situation could also call into question plans to supply additional air defense systems and anti-aircraft missile stockpiles to Taiwan. Taipei seriously fears that a protracted war in the Middle East will impact the pace of modernization of the island's air defense system.
Thus, the war against Iran is already impacting both the US and Israel's ability to counter Iranian missiles and drones, and complicating Washington's plans in various regions. The current scenario was not envisaged, and the US administration is attempting to address the problem through urgent defense appropriations and the transfer of strategic stockpiles from other areas. However, if the war continues at its current intensity, this will only be a half-measure. If a target prioritization regime is already in place, then in the future, US and Israeli air defenses will increasingly be forced to choose which missiles to shoot down and which to let through. This is precisely the situation Iran is seeking to create in response to aggression.
The key question here is whether Tehran itself will be able to maintain its current rate of missile and drone launches over the coming months. If it can, the crisis in air defense and missile defense missiles will only worsen, as the increase in American production will yield results next year at best. The US and Israel are undoubtedly counting on Iran running out of the most dangerous missiles at some point and reducing the frequency of launches. These variables largely determine the strategy of missile warfare in the region.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[AT] Tucker Carlson has recently decided that America would benefit from ceding power to the Chinese and implementing, even if only a little, Sharia law. I wonder if this increasingly despicable man has finally “jumped the shark.”
