US-Israel war with Iran: Do the gulf states have enough interceptor missiles?

The escalating military conflict between the US-Israel alliance and Iran has forced Gulf states into a high-stakes "bullet with a bullet" attrition war, relying on expensive Patriot interceptors to neutralize ballistic missile threats. Kelly Grieco, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center, highlights that while countries like Kuwait and Qatar report near-perfect interception rates, the sustainability of their defense is precarious. Standard defense protocols require firing two to three $4 million interceptors per incoming missile, potentially depleting up to 73% of regional stockpiles against an estimated Iranian arsenal of 2,500 missiles. Although the IDF claims to have destroyed half of Iran's launchers, the long-term threat shifts toward low-cost Shahed drones, which are easier to produce and harder to target than ballistic infrastructure. Global supply chain constraints and the war in Ukraine further limit the ability of Gulf nations to replenish their sophisticated missile inventories in the short term.