• Since last year, US warships have repeatedly fired SM-3 interceptors to defend Israel from Iranian missiles.
• A top Navy admiral told lawmakers Tuesday that the SM-3s have 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, Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz said US forces have 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 has all the Standard Missile-3 interceptors that it needs to be ready for other global threats.

Adm. James Kilby, acting chief of naval operations, said that the service does have a sufficient supply of interceptors, but, he said, "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 mid-course phase of flight. It is 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 US defense contractor RTX and, for the newest variant, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

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 over 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, did not specify what type of interceptors.

It is unclear how many SM-3s might have been launched as part of these efforts, and it is also unclear whether there were any confirmed interceptions of Iran's missiles in the latest engagements. The Pentagon did not immediately respond to BI's request for additional information.

Navy leadership has previously stated that it needs a lot more SM-3s to counter higher-level threats in the Pacific, like 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 around 150 to zero over the next five years, and only called for production of 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 aimed 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.

• Trump announced a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, but it's already showing signs of strain.
• Tehran may turn to proxies, missiles, or the Strait of Hormuz if the conflict reignites.
• Analysts told BI that Iran's options are limited and it risks a strong backlash.

Despite being outmatched by Israel's advanced arsenal, Iran retains several military options should the fragile ceasefire first announced by President Donald Trump collapse.

On Monday, Trump announced that the US had brokered a "complete and total" truce between the two countries, but since then there have already been signs that the deal is on shaky ground.

By Tuesday morning, Trump was urging restraint on Truth Social, calling on both countries to "not violate" the ceasefire. He later urged Israel to avoid "dropping those bombs," or risk committing a "major violation."

Ongoing covert operations and missile launches have already chipped away at its credibility, Andreas Krieg, a Gulf specialist at the Institute of Middle Eastern Studies at King's College London, told Business Insider.

"The ceasefire that took effect following US and Qatari mediation is brittle and fragile," Krieg said. "It rests more on political signaling and public posturing than on concrete enforcement mechanisms."

He added: "In practice, the ceasefire has mostly existed on social media, with each side using digital platforms to declare restraint while continuing activities that fall short of open warfare."

Mining or threatening the Strait of Hormuz

"There is a case where a ceasefire could hold," Chris Doyle, director of the Council for Arab British Understanding, told BI, "but there's also a case sort of saying that both sides want to be the last to fire."

If the ceasefire collapses, Iran's most powerful geopolitical lever remains the Strait of Hormuz — a vital 21-mile-wide chokepoint through which 20% of the world's oil flows.

Iran has long threatened to block it.

While Iran lacks the legal authority to shut down the Strait of Hormuz outright, it could cripple global energy markets by making the waters barely navigable.

"Under normal circumstances, this might be seen as a self-destructive option given Iran's own dependence on revenue from oil exports through that corridor," Jacob Parakilas, a research leader for Defence Strategy, Policy and Capabilities at RAND Europe, told Business Insider.

"But if Israeli strikes cause enough damage to Iranian oil infrastructure, that calculation might well change," he said, adding that Iran could use missile-armed small boats, drones, and naval mines.

"This arsenal could pose a significant challenge to navigation," said Sidharth Kaushal, a sea power expert at the Royal United Services Institute think tank.

Kaushal said the US Navy is equipped to counter this, but the time needed to do so would be costly for all involved.

A full closure of the Straits could push Brent crude past $110 a barrel, according to Goldman Sachs.

Attacks on US bases

Iran launched a missile strike on Monday on Al Udeid, the largest US base in the region. This was before the ceasefire was announced.

While Qatar said its air defense systems intercepted the missiles, and no casualties were reported, the attack showed Tehran's willingness to target US bases.

The US has bolstered its regional strength by deploying carrier strike groups and missile defense systems and repositioning aircraft, including B-2 bombers, away from vulnerable sites like Al Udeid.

However, Doyle believes that Iran is unlikely to escalate directly against the US.

Instead, he said that Iran's strategy could be to prolong the conflict with Israel, aiming to outlast its will politically and economically.

He described this as a war of attrition, rather than one of decisive strikes. "Whilst these dangerous weapons are still being used, anything can happen," he said.

Proxy groups

Beyond direct military action, Iran has long relied on its network of proxy forces — Hezbollah in Lebanon, Shia militias in Iraq and Syria, and the Houthis in Yemen.

These offer Tehran plausible deniability and the ability to hit Israel or US assets without direct confrontation.

But Iran's proxies are not what they once were.

Israel's offensives have decimated Hamas' military leadership and driven Hezbollah into retreat after heavy airstrikes and an incursion into southern Lebanon. Meanwhile, President Bashar Assad has been ousted in Syria.

The deaths of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the political wing of Hamas, have further degraded Tehran's reach.

Edmund Fitton-Brown, a senior advisor to the Counter Extremism Project, cautioned that Tehran may already be close to exhausting its proxy playbook.

These groups "are already doing everything they can," he said.

"Iran cannot supply the proxies — the Houthis are under siege," he added. "The main threats to the Americans would be from the Iraqi proxies, and even they may act independently rather than under direct Iranian command."

Activating these forces en masse also risks broader escalation, especially if unconventional weapons are used.

Ballistic missile capabilities

While Iran's air force can't compete with Israel's, its ballistic missile arsenal has expanded into the largest in the region.

Tehran now possesses an estimated 3,000 missiles, including a growing stockpile of solid-fueled, precision-guided medium-range weapons like the Fattah-1 and Kheibarshekan, which were both used in an attack on Israel last October.

But experts say these, too, have been significantly reduced.

Iran's "ballistic missile supply is not infinite and has already decreased significantly," Yaniv Voller, a senior lecturer in Middle East Politics at the University of Kent, said.

Fitton-Brown agreed: "They've mainly been depleted because they've been used — and the Israelis have taken aim at military-industrial sites."

No good options

Browne Maddox, director of the Chatham House think tank, wrote in a Sunday briefing that few of the choices available to Iran are attractive to it.

But it may still go for them "rather than be seen to be forced back to the table," she said.

It's also a delicate matter for the country domestically.

Being forced by the US to give up its nuclear enrichment — a key demand of the Trump administration — "would very likely be perceived by Iranians as surrender," she said.

One option for Tehran, she said, is to draw out negotiations while quietly rebuilding its nuclear program, taking advantage of ongoing disagreements in the Trump camp over how best to proceed.

But all its military options risk a devastating US or Israeli response.

"Iran doesn't have good options," Fitton-Brown said. "It's run out of them."

The Israel-linked hacker group known as Predatory Sparrow has carried out some of the most disruptive and destructive cyberattacks in history, twice disabling thousands of gas station payment systems across Iran and once even setting a steel mill in the country on fire. Now, in the midst of a new war unfolding between the two countries, they appear to be bent on burning Iran's financial system.

Predatory Sparrow, which often goes by its Farsi name, Gonjeshke Darande, in an effort to appear as a homegrown hacktivist organization, announced in a post on on its X account Wednesday that it had targeted the Iranian crypto exchange Nobitex, accusing the exchange of enabling sanctions violations and terrorist financing on behalf of the Iranian regime. According to cryptocurrency tracing firm Elliptic, the hackers destroyed more than $90 million in Nobitex holdings, a rare instance of hackers burning crypto assets rather than stealing them.

“These cyberattacks are the result of Nobitex being a key regime tool for financing terrorism and violating sanctions,” the hackers posted to X. “Associating with regime terror financing and sanction violation infrastructure puts your assets at risk.”

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Israel launched 200 warplanes on some of Iran's core nuclear and missile programs in what's been dubbed the "Rising Lion" operation. Iran quickly retaliated by sending 100 drones into Israel, which the Israel Defense Forces said were mostly intercepted.

• Israel targeted nuclear and military sites in Iran in airstrikes early Friday morning.
• The strikes are a major escalation that threatens to expand into a wider regional conflict.
• These are five key questions in the wake of Israel's air war.

Israel's widespread airstrikes on Iran effectively damaged the country's nuclear and ballistic missile programs, which officials said was a primary goal.

The strikes hit over 100 targets, including Iran's air defense systems, missile launchers, and senior military leadership.

Now, all eyes are on Tehran's response and the specter of a wider conflict. And there are questions over whether the US will get pulled into the fight.

Here are some main questions stemming from the attacks.

How has Iran responded?

Iran initially responded to the attack by firing 100 drones at Israel on Friday, which the Israel Defense Forces said were mostly intercepted.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Israel "should anticipate a severe punishment" in response to the strikes, and that Iran "won't let them go unpunished."

Hours later, the IDF said Iran had launched "dozens" of missiles at Israel in what appeared to be several waves. The military said its air defenses were actively intercepting threats, and video footage captured several impacts.

"The Iranian response might be delayed or split into multiple phases," said Matthew Savill, the director of military sciences at the UK-based Royal United Services Institute think tank.

"But their main weapon will be ballistic missiles," he added, "which have the best chance of inflicting damage on Israel, whereas drone and cruise missile attacks will face more extensive Israeli defences."

It is not unprecedented for Iran to launch powerful weapons at Israel; Tehran fired hundreds of missiles and drones at its foe in April and October last year. However, those strikes were mostly intercepted by Israel and its allies, including the US.

Beyond direct strikes, another way that Iran could retaliate is through the so-called "Axis of Resistance," a vast network of militias it is aligned with throughout the region, including Lebanon's Hezbollah and Yemen's Houthis.

Israel has been battling these forces, and Hamas in Gaza, since the October 7, 2023, attacks.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long advocated for destroying Iran's nuclear program, which Tehran claims is for civilian purposes.

The US, however, has been trying to reach a new deal with Iran (and has threatened violence if a deal isn't done). The strikes could derail those efforts and even goad Iran into racing to build a nuclear arsenal.

Could this trigger a wider conflict?

Israel's strikes threaten to spark a wider regional conflict, analysts at London's Chatham House think tank warned Friday.

"Far from being a preventive action, this strike risks triggering a broader regional escalation and may inadvertently bolster the Islamic Republic's domestic and international legitimacy," Sanam Vakil, Chatham House's Middle East and North Africa program director, said.

Last year, Tehran reportedly threatened to target Gulf state oil facilities if they allowed Israel access to their airspace for strikes against Iran. It's unclear what routes Israeli aircraft used in the attacks, but there's been speculation Israel could exploit the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria to get its aircraft directly over Iraq for strikes.

Russia is also a close ally of Iran, and the two have increased their defense cooperation since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

However, Nikita Smagin, an analyst at the Carnegie Endowment, said in December that the Kremlin is unlikely to come to Iran's direct aid in order to avoid direct confrontations with Israel and the US.

Will the US be pulled into a fight?

The US has helped arm and defend Israel, notably in the wake of Hamas' October 7 attacks. The world will be watching to see how President Donald Trump responds.

Trump has sought to broker a new nuclear deal with Iran, and in the wake of the Israeli attacks overnight, warned of "even more brutal" strikes from Israel if Iran refuses a new agreement.

Last year, the US Navy helped shoot down Iranian missiles fired at Israel in two major attacks, and it has rotated multiple aircraft carriers and many warships into the region since 2023, in a show of support for Israel and to deter its enemies, including Iran.

The US and other NATO countries have also defended international shipping routes in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden from attacks by the Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen.

What forces does the US have in the region?

The US has a substantial military presence in the Middle East, including naval forces, ground troops, and strike aircraft.

A Navy spokesperson told BI that the Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group — consisting of an aircraft carrier, a cruiser, and three destroyers — is in the Arabian Sea.

There are also three American destroyers in the Red Sea and another in the Eastern Mediterranean.

All of these warships, and the carrier's dozens of embarked aircraft, are capable of carrying out air defense missions to defeat incoming drones and missiles.

Were the strikes effective?

IDF spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said Israel's strikes "significantly harmed" Iran's main uranium enrichment site at Natanz.

"For many years, the people of the Iranian regime made an effort to obtain nuclear arms in this facility," he said, adding that the site "has the necessary infrastructure to enrich uranium to a military grade."

The International Atomic Energy Agency has confirmed the site was struck, but the extent of the damage remains unverified.

Satellite imagery appeared to show significant damage at the surface level.

There was also a report Friday that Israel had struck Fordow, a nuclear fuel enrichment site guarded deep under a mountain.

The IDF said that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps chief Hossein Salami and other senior military commanders were also killed in targeted strikes.

• Israel launched a major operation on Friday targeting Iran's nuclear program.
• Israeli officials said aircraft struck Iran's main enrichment facility at Natanz, among other sites.
• It's hard for Israel to completely wipe out Iran's nuclear program, given that much is underground.

Israel launched an air assault against Iran early Friday morning that officials said is intended to damage Tehran's nuclear program.

Hundreds of Israeli warplanes participated in a series of widespread airstrikes targeting sites associated with Iran's nuclear and missile programs, as well as military leaders and air defense systems, in a major escalation that has already drawn a retaliatory attack from Tehran.

Specifically, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that his forces "struck at the heart" of the country's nuclear enrichment and weaponization programs, and targeted its main enrichment facility at Natanz. The extent of the damage is unclear so far, but analysts said it appeared to be limited based on satellite imagery.

Netanyahu had long pushed for a military approach to Iran's nuclear program, as opposed to the deal that the Trump administration was hoping to settle to prevent Tehran from building nuclear weapons.

Iran has said that its nuclear program is for civilian purposes.

However, military and nuclear experts say firepower alone won't be enough to completely wipe out Iran's nuclear program. It has many scientists with nuclear expertise and has stored its most critical facilities in bunkers buried deep underground.

This makes the facilities particularly challenging targets that, from the air, can only be reached by the largest bunker busters, which Israel lacks, or repeated strikes in the same spots.

Natanz, home to Iran's largest uranium enrichment site, is located several floors underground in the center of the country. The Israel Defense Forces said its airstrikes damaged an underground area of the facility that contains an enrichment hall with centrifuges, electrical rooms, and additional infrastructure.

Satellite imagery captured on Friday revealed what appears to be significant damage at Natanz, but only on the surface.

Iran's other main enrichment site, Fordow, is buried even deeper in the side of a mountain and is the country's most "hardened" facility, said Darya Dolzikova, a senior research fellow for proliferation and nuclear policy at the UK-based Royal United Services Institute think tank.

In comments shared with Business Insider, Dolzikova said Fordow has not been affected by the Israeli strikes, nor have other locations. "Should Iran make a decision to produce a nuclear weapon, it would likely do that at hardened and potentially still secret sites," she said.

It's unclear what air-to-ground munitions Israel used to strike Natanz and the other targets affiliated with Iran's nuclear program. However, it would take a very large bunker-buster bomb to reach underground and destroy the more hardened sites.

The likely best weapon for the job is the US military's GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator, one of the most powerful non-nuclear bombs and the largest bunker buster in America's arsenal at 15 tons. These munitions can only be carried by the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber and the B-21 Raider in development.

Israel doesn't have bomber aircraft capable of carrying the largest bunker-buster munitions. The IDF shared footage showing its fighter jets — F-35s, F-16s, and F-15s — taking off and landing during the strikes. Weapons experts pointed out that some of the aircraft appear to be carrying 2,000-pound guided bombs. Israel's F-15I, though, can carry 4,000-pound anti-bunker bombs.

Military analysts with RUSI estimated in March that the Fordow site could be as deep as 260 feet underground, likely beyond the reach of even America's MOP. Damaging it would almost certainly require repeated strikes, likely over days or weeks.

US officials said Washington was not involved in the Israeli strikes. Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned Iran not to retaliate against American forces in the region, something Tehran and its allies have done in the past.

The US Navy has one aircraft carrier and seven surface warships in the Middle East right now. These assets are capable of providing air defense in the event of a larger Iranian response. So far, Tehran has retaliated by launching dozens of drones at Israel.

Beyond the nuclear sites, Israeli officials said forces also went after other high-profile Iranian targets, including its top scientists, senior military commanders, air defenses, and ballistic missile program.