We Burned Through Half Our Missiles in Seven Weeks... Now What?

In the first 72 hours of Operation Epic Fury, the U.S. Navy fired roughly 400 Tomahawk cruise missiles into Iran. More than the total number produced over the previous five years. Seven weeks later, we'd burned through half our Patriot interceptors, half our THAAD missiles, 30% of our Tomahawks, and 45% of our precision strike missiles. The Pentagon is now asking for a 1,327% increase in Tomahawk procurement. And it takes 24 months to build a single one. So what does it actually mean to run out of bullets - and what happens next? Mike and Neal break down the real numbers behind America's munitions crisis, why the defense acquisitions system is so broken that a weapon built on 40-year-old technology somehow costs $2.6 million per shot, and what a startup-driven defense economy might actually look like. They also get into the part nobody's talking about: China is watching all of this very closely, and the stockpile we just burned through is the same one standing between Taiwan and a very bad day. Plus: the Iran war isn't ending anytime soon and the administration doesn't have the negotiators to close it, off-lease EVs just got shockingly affordable, and the White House Correspondents' Dinner shooting - why political violence is never the answer, full stop. And yes, they read the harshest listener comment they've ever received. MarkStuber4731, this one's for you! Got a take? Email us: [email protected] Follow Hardpoints wherever you get your podcasts.