A battle of inventories

Short wars may be won by tactical brilliance, but long wars are usually won by logistics and industrial capacity.

- DEVANGSHU DATTA

The outcome in the Iran war, now into its third week, may, however depend on the balance between contrasting inventories.Iran has an inventory of ballistic missiles and suicide drones. The United States (US) and Israel alliance has missile interceptors. Iran’s arsenal is cheap, mass-produced, and low-tech. The missile interceptors are way more expensive. The US and Israel are spending around $3-4 million every time they successfully shoot down a drone that costs $15,00020,000. Producing a Patriot missile also takes much longer than making a Shahed drone.

Israel’s air defence systems, the famous Iron Dome (and the new short-range Iron Beam) are outstanding in terms of identifying aerial threats and tracking them. But if Israel runs out of interceptors, tracking Iranian swarms will not be of much practical use.

In the 12-day war of 2025, Israel and Iran traded attacks from June 13 to June 24. There are unconfirmed reports Israel was running out of interceptors by the end, when the US brokered a ceasefire. As of now, 21 days into the current war, Iran continues to target locations across West Asia and Israel and US continue to bombard targets in Iran.