Gulf States Race to Secure More U.S. Interceptors

Gulf states are anxiously waiting for the U.S. military to deliver supplies of interceptors for air-defence systems as they try to fend off volleys of Iranian missiles and swarms of drones, regional officials said.

Missiles for those interceptors, part of aerial defence systems sold to Gulf states by major U.S. manufacturers for billions of dollars, have been in short supply since the start of the war in Ukraine after decades of under-investment in their procurement.

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The challenge isn’t new. Iran has for years been preparing for just this scenario by producing vast numbers of missiles and cheap drones. The former chief of the U.S.’s Central Command, Frank McKenzie, said he “spent a large part of my professional life thinking about” the Iranian missile arsenal.

The solution, albeit a messy one, is what the U.S. and Israel are attempting now, McKenzie said at a webinar on Sunday for Washington-based think-tank JINSA: “To strike missile storage facilities, transporters, launch sites and command and control centres.”

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Originally published in Financial Times.