US Tomahawks are being used in the Iran war faster than the stock is being replenished

Washington – The United States has so far used hundreds of Tomahawk cruise missiles against Iranaccording to two sources familiar with the matter, several times the amount purchased for the military each year.

One of the sources said that more than 850 have been used so far conflictthat’s nearly nine times the number of Tomahawks the Pentagon buys on average each year. This number was first reported by the Washington Post.

The maximum production rate is estimated at 2,330 per year: Three contracts from Raytheon each have a capacity of 600 and BAE has a contract to produce up to 530 missiles per year, according to a report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, which cites Pentagon budget documents.

However, the actual rate of US military procurement is about 90 per year, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The Navy has requested just 57 missiles in fiscal year 2026, according to Defense Department budget documents.

In all, it is estimated that the Pentagon has 3,100 or more Tomahawk missiles in its inventory, according to Kelly Grieco, a senior official at the Stimson Center.

“It’s been recognized that we don’t have enough long-range strike capability, so we’ve been trying to build these stocks, but we’re running out,” Grieco told CBS News.

Raytheon, or RTX, recently announced a framework agreement with the Department of Defense to increase 1,000 missiles for the US annually in a few years.

What is the Tomahawk missile and which US military services use it?

The Tomahawk cruise missile, launched from Navy destroyers and submarines, can travel more than 1,000 miles and strike with remarkable accuracy, even against targets protected by sophisticated air defenses. Developed during the Cold War and continuously improved since then, it has become one of the Pentagon’s most reliable long-range weapons.

This missile is primarily used by the US Navy, but in recent years has also been adopted by the Marine Corps and Army, demonstrating the wide versatility of long-range precision weapons across the services. Allied militaries, including Britain’s Royal Navy, are also participating in the program. There is no emerging evidence to suggest that Iran uses or has acquired Tomahawk missiles for use.

According to Pentagon data, the Tomahawk has been tested more than 550 times and used in more than 2,300 strikes, according to Raytheon, a defense manufacturer. In conflicts from Iraq to Syria and more recently in the US-Israel war with Iran, Tomahawks are often used as the first weapon when American commanders want to hit distant or heavily defended targets without involving pilots.

How much do Tomahawks cost?

Costs vary depending on which version of the Tomahawk the US buys, but the missile costs about $2.2 million and the launcher is more than $6 million for the ground-based versions. Tomahawks launched by the US Navy from destroyers or submarines are capable of hitting moving ships and can cost more than $4 million.

Tomahawks are one of the most advanced weapons used by the US.

Democratic Representative Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a hearing earlier this week that the US military has fired “thousands of Tomahawks, Precision Strike Missiles, and other long-range weapons at Iran, while using Patriot, THAAD, and Standard Missile interceptors at an alarming rate.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the US is mobilizing its defense industrial base in an effort to rapidly produce critical weapons.

“We are revitalizing our defense industrial base and rebuilding the freedom package,” Hegseth said at a press conference last week, adding that the new agreements would reduce “long lead times on good weapons.”

“We’re going to be replenished faster than anyone thought,” Hegseth said.

How many Tomahawks has the US used since it attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities in June 2025?

Although no official cumulative number is publicly available, the US military has used nearly 1,000 Tomahawk missiles and possibly more between strikes in Iran, operations in Yemen and the Red Sea, Nigeria and other conflicts since then. June 2025according to many media reports and weapons experts.

How fast can the US produce Tomahawks missiles right now?

Production of the Tomahawk cruise missile has struggled to keep pace with its growing use. In recent years, the industry has produced a dozen to a few hundred missiles annually in the US under normal procurement cycles, according to Defense Department budget documents, a number far below what could be used even in a short, high-intensity conflict. Defense officials and analysts have long argued that the limitation is not just funding, but structural constraints on the defense industrial landscape designed for predictable demand rather than rapid wartime expansion.

How many Tomahawks would the US like to produce in the future?

Recent announcements by the Ministry of Defense indicate that there has been an active effort to increase the capacity of the Tomahawk. RTX announced last month that annual Tomahawk production will increase to more than 1,000 per year under the new agreements.

But those efforts appear to have continued over many years and are not a wartime snapback.

Separately, the Pentagon’s September 2025 contract notice says Raytheon received engineering funding to improve the production capacity of the Tomahawk All Up Round missile system, with work to be completed by March 2028.