Reports that Israel is running out of missiles critical to its Arrow 3 air defense system are “not true” and are likely being used to set the stage for U.S. involvement in strikes against Iran, an Israeli source has told Newsweek.
Speculation about possible involvement by the U.S. in Israeli military action against Iran has intensified in recent days, with President Donald Trump on Wednesday refusing to answer whether he has made a decision.
Israel has faced hundreds of missiles and drones launched from Iran since Israeli forces began bombing Iranian nuclear sites and military assets last week. One of the key systems Israel possesses to defeat incoming ballistic missiles are the Arrow 3 and its interceptor missiles.
An anonymous U.S. official told The Wall Street Journal in an article published on Wednesday that Israel is now running low on Arrow interceptors. The U.S. has been aware of the problem for months, they said.
But an Israeli source with knowledge of the Arrow 3 system told Newsweek that Israel has “enough” Arrow 3 interceptors, adding that planning for this type of scenario was extensive.
The source, who was not authorized to speak publicly on the issue, said they believed the claim that Israel was running down its interceptor stocks was engineered to mislead Iran, and possibly tee up U.S. involvement in strikes.
AP Photo/Leo Correa
Trump has floated that the U.S. may become embroiled in Israel’s attacks on key Iranian sites, but no decision has been announced.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Trump said: “I may do it, I may not.”
“You don’t seriously think I’m going to answer that question,” he added. He has repeatedly said Iran should “make a deal” to end the airstrikes, while Tehran said it will not negotiate an agreement while under Israeli attack.
Israel operates several different types of air defense systems to take out various types of threats. Its Iron Dome short-range air defense system is one of the most famous in the world, while the Arrow 3 intercepts long-range ballistic missiles before they return from the Earth’s atmosphere.
Israel launched what it termed a “preemptive” campaign against Iran’s nuclear facilities and scientists, as well as the country’s ballistic missile sites and other military assets, on Friday.
Iran responded with drone and ballistic missile barrages, totaling more than 400 missiles and hundreds of drones so far, Israel said on Wednesday.
Israeli authorities say 24 people have been killed in Israel and more than 800 people injured since Friday. Iran’s health ministry said earlier this week 224 people had been killed in Israeli strikes, while a U.S.-based human rights group put the combined military and civilian death toll in Iran at 585 as of Wednesday.
The ongoing question is whether Trump will deploy U.S. B-2 stealth bombers, equipped with bunker-busting bombs, to target Iran’s Fordow nuclear site. The facility, built under a mountain roughly 100 miles from Tehran, has not sustained any damage in Israeli strikes across the country, observers say.
B-2s carrying 30,000-pound GBU-57/B bombs, known as Massive Ordnance Penetrators, are widely considered the only viable choice for targeting the site.
Trump has warned Iran—which has cast the U.S. as already involved—that Tehran would face “the full strength and might” of the U.S. military on “levels you’ve never seen before” if Iran attacked the U.S. in any way. The country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, threatened the U.S. on Wednesday with “irreparable damage” if Washington becomes militarily involved.
Israel and the U.S. have both insisted it is unacceptable for Iran to gain a nuclear weapon. While Iran has said its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, officials have publicly discussed the possibility of nuclear weapons.
Mohammad Eslami, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, described the country’s facilities on Wednesday as in “good” condition, according to the semiofficial Tasnim news agency.
The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog assessed on Monday that Israel had “severely damaged if not destroyed” centrifuges at the underground facility in Natanz, one of the three major nuclear sites in Iran. Centrifuges are used to enrich uranium, which is needed to develop nuclear weapons.
The belowground centrifuges were not hit directly, but Israeli strikes caused power cuts and “completely destroyed” the aboveground Natanz site, Rafael Grossi, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told the BBC.
The Arrow 3 was first used in combat in late 2023, according to its manufacturer, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI). The state-owned company said the Arrow 3 had intercepted a ballistic missile launched by Houthi rebels in Yemen at the southern Israeli city of Eilat.
The source said Israel had used David’s Sling, another missile defense system, in recent days to intercept incoming Iranian missiles. The interceptors used by David’s Sling are significantly cheaper than those fired as part of Arrow 3, they said.
Iron Dome interceptors had also been previously used to take out debris from falling, intercepted missiles, the source added.
Using other systems than Arrow 3 to intercept incoming Iranian ballistic missiles makes the chance of Israel successfully knocking the threat out of the sky much lower, said Jack Watling, a senior research fellow with the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), an influential British think tank.
Israeli officials have assessed Iran still has thousands of ballistic missiles at its disposal, although Israeli authorities have reported a reduction in the number of missiles heading for the country from Iran in recent days. However, while it is not clear whether Israel is down to relatively few interceptors, no type of expensive missile is unlimited.
“What we’re seeing is that the salvo size is coming down, and therefore the number of missiles that have to be defeated in each salvo is fewer — which is why the Israelis are maintaining a pretty high intercept rate, even though their availability of interceptors is lower,” said Watling.
Iran likely only had a few thousand of the intermediate-range ballistic missiles capable of reaching Israel comfortably from Iranian soil, Watling said. But most of its arsenal is made up of short-range ballistic missiles, which would struggle to reach Israel until positioned in the west of Iran, Watling told Newsweek.
The U.S. has also helped to intercept Iranian missile barrages, officials have previously said. The U.S. has a significant footprint in the Middle East, including through its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-ballistic missile system.
