Trump allies fear Pentagon is keeping White House in dark about missile shortage in Iran war: Report

Insiders in the Donald Trump administration are concerned that the Pentagon may be hiding the true extent of missile shortages linked to the Iran war from the White House, according to The Telegraph.

They fear that Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has created such a toxic environment at the Pentagon by frequently firing staffers —ranging from aides to top generals— for sharing inconvenient facts that officials are no longer willing to provide an accurate picture of US weapons stockpiles.

A source told the newspaper that sharing “bad news or realistic news doesn’t seem to end well for anybody” at the Pentagon. A second source said that a “culture of silence” was creating problems.

Such a situation carries the risk of Trump, Hegseth, and field commanders making decisions related to the war that are not grounded in facts. For example, they could escalate the conflict believing that the US military in the region has ample missiles to strike Iran and sufficient interceptors to defend American bases and troops when in reality stockpiles of both may be significantly below operational requirements.

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The report comes at a time when American casualties and equipment losses have surged in Iranian attacks. Over the past week, at least three soldiers have been killed, around 100 have been injured, multiple aircraft have been damaged, and equipment including radar systems has been struck at US bases across West Asia.

Moreover, this is not the first time concerns about missile shortages have been raised.

As Firstpost previously covered, a US official admitted earlier this week that the United States does not have enough missiles to return to a full-scale war with Iran.

There are particular concerns about stockpiles of Thaad and Patriot interceptors, according to Ryan Brobst of the Foundation for Defence of Democracies (FDD).

“The main effect of depleting air and missile defence stockpiles is that you assume more risk to forces being targeted. So, for example, you would launch one interceptor at an incoming missile instead of two interceptors at an incoming missile, which would then decrease the probability that you actually intercept it,” Brobst told The Telegraph.

Trump, Hegseth waging war without knowing the full picture: Report

There are doubts within the administration about whether even Hegseth knows the true extent of depleted US missile stockpiles.

Sources said that Pentagon officials fear being fired to such an extent that they are not sharing the full picture with Hegseth. As a result, even when he briefs Trump or Congress, the information he presents may be inaccurate, leaving the entire advisory and decision-making chain based on flawed assumptions.

“I question how honest the Pentagon is being with [Mr Hegseth] or the White House since bad news, or realistic news doesn’t seem to end well for anybody. Everybody is doing the best they can to keep the [department] running as efficiently as possible for the sake of our troops, in spite of the chaos factor above us, and also keep our heads in the process,” a source told The Telegraph.

A second source said that “this culture of silence has been a problem [for Hegseth] since he shrunk his circle to just a handful of individuals”.

“When he advises the president, or when he goes to Congress, he doesn’t have full information because his top aides are trying to stay off his radar,” the source added.

Mike Duffey, who would be responsible for replenishing missile stocks as Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, is a “nice guy” but is “very loath to bring bad news to Pete” and “pretty much stays out of his orbit”, according to the source.

The culture of silence was illustrated last year when Hegseth fired Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) chief Lieutenant General Jeffery Kruse after the agency concluded that US strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites had failed to obliterate them, contradicting Trump's public claims. Later, independent analyses —as Firstpost's Madhur Sharma also reported— confirmed that the DIA assessment was correct, and Hegseth fired Kruse for refusing to falsify the assessment.