Josh Keating

And Saudi Arabia.

Actually, one of the surprises of this war has been that they're actually firing more missiles at those countries than they are at Israel.

And they're firing at U.S.

bases throughout the region as well.

So, you know, this is really a kind of all-out regional retaliation strategy that Iran is using both against the U.S.

and Israel and at countries in the Gulf that are not actually part of this war but are allied with the U.S.

and Israel.

Yeah, well, I mean, part of it is just these things are expensive.

And, you know, a Patriot Interceptor, which is kind of the top end, those missiles, they cost about $4 million each.

It's not something you want to fire at, you know, a jury-rigged drone that you bought off of Costco and, like, attached a grenade to, which is something we've seen in the war in Ukraine.

If you think about what these are, it's basically shooting down a bullet with another bullet.

And so...

The fact that we have the technology to do that is pretty amazing, but these are pricey items.

The U.S.

reportedly burned through an estimated $2.4 billion worth of Patriot interceptors in just the first five days of this war.

There's another system called THAAD, which are these advanced mobile missile batteries.

And during the war in June, the U.S.

burned through about a quarter of its stock of them.

You know, so this is an even more intense missile war now.

So this is sort of a tough story to cover because every actor in it has incentive not to give you the latest and most accurate numbers.