Does the US have the weapons to fight Iran 'forever'? | Global News Podcast

Hi, I'm Ankur Desai. Welcome to the. Global News Podcast on YouTube. Today, as the Israel-US war against Iran. expands across the region in the Middle. East, we're looking at Washington and. Iran's military capabilities, the. weapons they're using, and crucially, the arm stockpiles and how long they. could last for. I'm joined today by our. defense correspondent, Jonathan Beale. I. guess first things first, Jonathan, um. fears from many people that this could. turn into a long-term war. Could Could. that be a possibility?

I mean, it could be a possibility, and. we've seen with what's happened in Gaza. with Israel bombing it, uh saying it was going to destroy Hamas. Well, it hasn't completely destroyed. Hamas. We saw with the US targeting the. Houthi rebels in Yemen, who are backed. by Iran, that they targeted the US the. Houthi rebels and still didn't destroy. all their capability to fire missiles. and drones. Um so, so even long campaigns don't. always achieve their military. objectives. We're not really clear about.

what the military objectives the US has. given, you know, at the start it was a. suggestion that it might be about regime. change. Now, it seems to be very focused. on on destroying Iran's military. capabilities. Um but, these things can go on for a. while. And remember, Iran is a country. three times the size of France. It's a. massive country. You can hide weapons, you know, even if you if you have lots of jets. flying over there. And let's be honest,

the Israelis and the the US pretty much. have air supremacy. They're not having. to worry too much about I'm sure the. Iranians do have some air defenses, but. most of them have gone. Most of the. sophisticated stuff has gone. So, the initial stages of this war, America would have used some of the most. expensive weapons they've got because. they're long-range weapons, like, for. example, Tomahawk cruise missiles. These. weapon systems cost, you know, millions. of dollars each. But, they're now able. to fly over targets without the worry of.

being shot down or or less of a worry of. being shot down by the Iranian air. defense systems because they've largely. been destroyed. And they are able to use. much cheaper munitions. So, for example, JDAM bombs, which are essentially dumb. bombs fitted with a guidance system, but. instead of costing millions of dollars, they they cost tens of thousands of. dollars. What sort of arsenal do they. possess in Iran? And And And how can we. possibly verify what they have?

Militaries do not give numbers of. weapons stockpiles. Um that's pretty much across the board. because it gives. a potential adversary, you know, information that's going to be very. useful to them. How long can they last, essentially? And we're all asking that. question. But, there are some estimates of what. Iran does have. Um more than 2,000. ballistic missiles. before this stage of the conflict. started. Remember, last year, um the US.

in Operation Midnight Hammer went after. Iran's nuclear capability, but also. targeted its long-range weapons uh. production as well. And then, we've seen the drones in Ukraine being. used, those Shahed drones, which. essentially is an Iranian technology, which Iran then handed over to Russia, and Russia used to great effect. Well, Iran has mass-produced these drones. itself and also given it to its proxies. like Hezbollah, um like the Houthis in Yemen. And there.

there are believed to be tens of. thousands of those. But, as I said, the. problem at the moment for Iran is that. its factories, its weapons production, it's And we've seen from imagery. released by Pentagon, missile launching sites being targeted. pretty much every day now. And Jonathan, are they only going to rely on missiles. and drones? Are there any other. strategies in terms of attack? One of the concerns at the moment, and. we're seeing evidence of it, is is the. way Iran can essentially.

dis- not just disrupt, can strangle. international shipping. Remember, a lot. of the oil. um that comes from the Middle East goes. through the Strait of Hormuz, a very. narrow passageway with Iran on one side, and then countries like um Oman, Bahrain. close by, and the UAE. They could still, you know, cause a lot of havoc for a. long time. We know that the US has. targeted Iran's big warships, uh but. they have still lots of small fast.

attack craft, some of them autonomous, which they can use to target shipping. They can mine the Strait of Hormuz. They. can make it very, very difficult indeed. And we are talking about conventional. war at the moment. But, there's also hybrid war. There's. you know, there are there is the. potential to attack countries on their. own soil, whether it be incidents which would be. described as terrorist, you know,

attacks, cyber activities. >> cyber activity, and sometimes. the reaction or the response. will be years away from the event. So, you know, the threat doesn't. suddenly disappear. If there was a different government, maybe that would change things, but at. the moment, I don't think there's any. indication. that Yeah, the regime's lost a lot of. key people, but it's it doesn't look. like it's about to fold yet.

President Trump says we can go as long. as we need to, but he is putting. pressure on. those partners who are producing weapons. for the US. He is telling them that you. need to start producing them and produce. them quickly. No country has an infinite number of. weapons. Um so, I think there's a little. bit of exaggeration when President Trump. says unlimited. I think they've probably. got enough. Um they will have. stockpiles. So, all militaries will have. stockpiles, and the US will have.

stockpiles for specific theaters. So, for example, concerns about China, they'd built. stockpiles up in the in the Indo-Pacific. region. Um there will be stockpiles for. the European region, and there'll be. stockpiles for the Middle East region. And remember, the US also supplies. uh Israel with a lot of its weapons that. it's been using. But, I think you can. say that at the moment, you know, we're. we're in the early stages of the war, but you look at some of the figures. So,

the US has carried out more than 2,000. strikes, according to CENTCOM. Each of. those strikes would involve multiple. missions. Israel. uh is believed to have dropped fired. 5,000 bombs and missiles. That is That's. as so far. That's as many as they used. in the entire 12-day war against Iran. last year. So, what we do know is that. they are probably expending munitions. faster than they can produce them. So,

if you ask the question then, who's. going to run out first, I think you you got to remember that the. US is a superpower. It's got the world's. biggest military. Okay, its production. weapons production is often. limited because they're producing very. expensive. um missiles and bombs. Um and they're at a peacetime level. They're not like Russia. They haven't. got a wartime economy. So, I think. President Trump is going to meet defense. companies later this week, and no doubt. will. ask them to ramp up production. But,

it it would be very difficult for the US. to run out of weapons. When it comes to. Iran, I guess they in terms of their. their their tactics, could they try to. play a game of possum? We know that in. recent days the the attacks have been. less frequent, using less missiles. Could they Could they be playing a. waiting game because they're trying to. replenish their stocks? So, that is. something that the the US and Israel are. very wary of. Yeah, I I So, I think the the the the. figures that we were given by the. by the by CENTCOM yesterday was that. there had been more than an 80% drop in.

the number of missiles fired by Iran. since the first day, and more than a 70%. drop of drones fired since the first. day. So, that would suggest there's been. a pretty dramatic decrease. That said, you know, today, um we hear that I think. it was the UAE where they said that they. had six six missiles launched, more than. 100 drones. So, so clearly Iran still. has the capability to do this. It is. possible that Iran, you know, we'll see. that figure fluctuate because Iran may.

withhold um and protect some of its. stocks so that they can prolong this war. and make sure that they can retaliate. um in the future. I think, you know, the. the real worry is that. that. as I mentioned, the Houthis in Yemen. And I And I And you know, it's worth. mentioning Hezbollah, which has been. targeted by Israel, still firing. um missiles um into Israel, and drones. It has that capability. Another proxy of.

Iran. Hamas not completely destroyed. Another. proxy uh of Iran. That. you can do you can do a lot with. degrading their military capabilities, but that doesn't mean they're defeated. or they're destroyed. And inevitably, something will always. survive. And as I said at the beginning, Iran is a country that's three times the. size of France. So, Gaza is a fraction. of that size. Um and that's still not.

resolved in many ways. So, you know, I think it will be up to the. US to decide. They will tell us what. they think a victory is, and then we can. all all argue whether it is a victory, but I think we've already seen the. military goals shift a bit. And I think that um. there will be a a point where. President Trump will want to end this. Jonathan, thank you so much for your. time as always. Jonathan Beale, our. defense correspondent. If you're.

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