- Since last year, US warships have repeatedly fired SM-3 interceptors to defend Israel from Iranian missiles.
- A top Navy admiral told lawmakers on Tuesday that the SM-3s had been depleted at an "alarming rate."
- These are assets the US would need in a high-end fight.
US Navy warships are burning through one of the top ballistic missile interceptors at an "alarming rate," the admiral overseeing naval operations told lawmakers on Tuesday.
During a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii said US forces had expended large amounts of munitions to defend Israel from Iranian strikes during the latest round of conflict in the Middle East and asked whether the Navy had all the Standard Missile-3 interceptors that it needed to be ready for other global threats.
Adm. James Kilby, the acting chief of naval operations, said that the service did have a sufficient supply of interceptors but that "we are, to your point, using them at an alarming rate."
"As you know, those are missiles procured by the Missile Defense Agency and then delivered to the Navy for our use," he added. "And we are using them quite effectively in the defense of Israel."
The SM-3 is a missile interceptor that uses a kinetic kill vehicle to destroy short- to intermediate-range missiles during the midcourse phase of flight. It's part of the Navy's highly advanced Aegis Combat System, equipped on Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and Ticonderoga-class cruisers.
Unlike the Navy's other missile interceptors, the SM-3 can engage targets in space.
The SM-3 missile comes in multiple variants, which can cost as much as $10 million on the low end and almost $30 million on the high end, according to the MDA. The weapon is made by the US defense contractor RTX and, for the newest variant, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
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The Navy first used the SM-3 interceptor in combat to defend Israel from Iran's unprecedented missile and drone attack in April 2024. American warships then fired the interceptors again several months later, in October, when Tehran launched more than 180 ballistic missiles at Israel.
A US official told Business Insider last week that Navy warships in the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea had launched missile interceptors to defend Israel from Iranian attacks amid the latest round of fighting between the two enemies. The official, however, didn't specify what type of interceptors.
It's unclear how many SM-3s might have been launched as part of these efforts, and it's also unclear whether there were any confirmed interceptions of Iran's missiles in the latest engagements. The Pentagon didn't immediately respond to BI's request for additional information.
Navy leadership has previously said it needs a lot more SM-3s to counter higher-level threats in the Pacific, such as China and its large arsenal of ballistic missiles. Analysts, however, have raised concerns that the sea service is rapidly expending these interceptors in Middle East conflicts without sufficient plans to replace them.
The fiscal year 2025 defense budget request cut procurement of SM-3 Block IB interceptors from about 150 to zero over the next five years and called for production of only a dozen of the newer SM-3 Block IIA variants every year for the same period.
The defense appropriation bill reversed some of those plans, providing additional funding for more SM-3 production. In May, the Pentagon awarded a substantial contract to RTX for dozens of SM-3 IBs. And there's also been further support directed at boosting production of newer SM-3 variants. The outlook for the coming fiscal year isn't totally clear, but the emphasis on missile defense could reflect a favorable environment for increasing SM-3 interceptor stockpiles.