The Trump administration has burned through “years” of critical munitions since the start of the war with Iran, said three people familiar with the matter, fuelling concerns about the rising cost of the conflict and the US’s ability to replenish its stockpiles. The rapid depletion of weaponry included advanced long-range Tomahawk missiles, the people said. It is a “massive expenditure of Tomahawks”, said one person familiar with the US military’s use of munitions. “The navy will be feeling this expenditure for several years.” The rising costs will pile pressure on Donald Trump as the war has brought a critical maritime trade corridor to a halt and sent oil prices above $100 a barrel. In a midterm election year, the war is also increasingly unpopular with American voters who face soaring petrol prices and are questioning whether the president has signed the country up for another prolonged conflict in the Middle East.

The Pentagon is expected to submit a formal request to the White House and Congress in the coming days for as much as $50bn in additional spending for the military. The supplemental funding request will set the stage for what is likely to be a fierce funding battle on Capitol Hill that could lay bare growing unease among lawmakers about the administration’s actions. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican on the Senate appropriations committee charged with approving the federal budget, has warned lawmakers will chafe at any expectation from the White House of a blank cheque. The Pentagon must “engage” Congress, she said on Thursday. “You’ve got to be able to provide us with information, as requested, justification,” she said. “Don’t just take for granted that the Congress’s role is basically just to write the cheque.” Any supplemental bill to fund the war in Iran could face a battle in the House of Representatives and the Senate. Republicans control the House by a razor-thin margin and fiscal conservatives are likely to recoil at any big outlay of taxpayer money, especially if the White House tries to attach additional public spending such as tariff relief for farmers to a military funding package.

do “fiscal conservatives” even still exist as a coherent group?

Democratic lawmakers, who have criticised the Iran war as illegal because Trump did not seek congressional approval, are also likely to balk at allocating more money for the Pentagon. Former Republican Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday urged his colleagues “who oppose the president’s use of force against Iran” to approve the military’s supplemental budget request all the same, arguing that it presents an “overdue opportunity to invest in urgent and strategic defence priorities”. “Weakness invites challenge,” McConnell, a frequent critic of Trump in his second term, said on the Senate floor. “But our adversaries have sought to weaken and undermine America regardless of who the commander-in-chief is.” Pentagon officials earlier this week told senators that the war had cost more than $11bn in the first six days of strikes. The costs were overwhelmingly for munitions. “The rounds we’re firing — Patriot rounds, Thaad rounds . . . these weapon systems, each round is millions of dollars,” Democratic senator and Air Force veteran Mark Kelly told MS Now. Meanwhile, the Iranians are “firing cheap drones”, he said, referring to the Shaheds that US intelligence officials say Iran is able to produce quickly for $30,000 a piece. “The math on this doesn’t work,” Kelly added.

uh, I’m getting the feeling the US isn’t exactly lobbing cheap JDAMs at stuff…

The military is expected to brief Congress on munitions expended in the coming days, a person familiar with the matter said. US officials have expressed growing concerns in recent years that the use of critical munitions could outpace their production, particularly if the US is drawn into conflicts with adversaries such as Russia or China. This could leave US stockpiles dangerously depleted and the US military less ready to confront future wars.

“could” you’re way past that pal

Murkowski recalled US administrations explaining to Ukraine and European partners in recent years that “we would do more” to help supply them, “but we don’t have the stockpiles”. “With the level of inventory that [US operations in Iran are] going through on a daily basis, I think we all have reason to ask good questions about how we are doing on munitions,” Murkowski added. US defence secretary Pete Hegseth last week said: “We’ve got no shortage of munitions. Our stockpiles of defensive and offensive weapons allow us to sustain this campaign as long as we need to.” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday said: “The US military has more than enough munitions, ammo and weapons stockpiles to achieve the goals of Operation Epic Fury laid out by President Trump and beyond.” “Nevertheless, President Trump has always been intensely focused on strengthening our armed forces and he will continue to call on defence contractors to more speedily build American-made weapons, which are the best in the world.”

Tomahawks, subsonic cruise missiles with a 1,000lb warhead, are manufactured by US weapons maker RTX at a cost of $3.6mn each. The US military has bought only 322 of the missiles in the past five years, including the 57 the navy has earmarked for fiscal year 2026 at a cost of $206.6mn. It stands to replenish just a fraction of what it has probably used in recent days. The US also used at least 124 of the missiles to target Houthi militants in Yemen and Iran’s nuclear facilities in 2024 and 2025. Washington used more than two dozen of the missiles in its attack on the regime’s facility at Isfahan, General Dan Caine, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said last June. The Center for International and Strategic Studies estimated the US used 168 Tomahawks in the first 100 hours of the war that started on February 28.

well, uh, 124 + 24 (and it’s actually suppose to be more than two dozen, so maybe something like 30, but let’s go with just 24 for simplicity’s sake) + 168 = 316, which is, uh, nearly the entirety of the past 5 years production

“It’s a lot. And it will take years to replace,” said one US lawmaker of the Tomahawks, as well as US reserves of Thaad interceptors and Patriot missiles, critical air defences against the barrage of missiles and drones that Iran has unleashed on US and allied assets in the Middle East since the start of the war. The US is spending “many billions” on a war that is proving deeply unpopular with Americans, Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate financial services committee, said on Thursday. The cost of it “goes up practically as we talk”, he said. “It’s an astronomical sum.”

The number of Iranian missile launchers has held steady after a week of unrelenting airstrikes, according to Israeli and western estimates, indicating the difficulty of finding small, mobile targets without having complete control of the skies. Israeli Defense Forces officials said Thursday that two-thirds of the Islamic Republic’s launchers had been destroyed. That’s little changed from the 60% reported last week. Two western estimates on Thursday also put the number of destroyed launchers at 60%, with one adding that as much as 80% of Iran’s total offensive capability had been destroyed. The mobile launchers are key to Iran’s ability to fire its large supply of ballistic missiles. But finding the vehicles in such a large country, especially when some airspace is still dangerous for US and Israeli aircraft, poses a huge challenge. Meanwhile, Tehran has long been aware the launchers will be targeted. “It’s likely that the Iranians are adapting tactics,” said Ankit Panda, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “It’s quite possible that they’re just preserving launchers by slowing down operations and focusing more on Shaheds.”

Iran has fired more than 2,400 Shahed-136 rudimentary cruise missiles at targets around the region, compared with at least 789 ballistic missiles and 39 standard cruise missiles, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. An Israeli estimate put Iran’s arsenal at up to 2,500 ballistic missiles before the war started Feb. 28. US and Israeli strikes have taken aim at those stockpiles while also prioritizing the destruction of launchers to create a bottleneck that prevents using whatever missiles remain. That’s led to a more than 80% decrease in Iranian attacks with ballistic missiles and Shaheds, according to US Central Command. The number of ballistic missiles fired at Gulf targets has stabilized at an average of about 21 a day over the last three days, said Becca Wasser, defense lead at Bloomberg Economics. Although as much as 80% of Iran’s air defenses have been destroyed, according to Israeli estimates, hard-to-find weapons such as the 358 missile — capable of launching from small, easily concealed rail vehicles — complicate air operations. The missiles, also used by Houthi fighters in Yemen, use infrared seekers and can fly a fixed pattern in the air until they spot a target. The lack of radar means aircraft could have little warning.

The US has issued its second authorization for buyers to take Russian oil cargoes already at sea, a move intended to ease growing pressure on prices as the war in the Middle East continues. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, in a social media post, said the move was designed to be a “narrowly tailored, short-term measure” that “applies only to oil already in transit and will not provide significant financial benefit to the Russian government.” The measure, which applies only to oil loaded before March 12, expands upon a month-long waiver granted to India last week. That was intended for crude loaded on ships before March 5. The wider provision is no longer confined to India, but does not allow for Iran to buy the oil.

The US government has sought to take steps to tame spiking crude and fuel prices. Among other options, it is considering a plan to waive a century-old maritime law that requires American ships be used to transport goods between US ports. The efforts have yet to have a major impact on prices, with Brent crude near $100 a barrel in early Asia trading on Friday. Bessent has previously suggested the US could “unsanction” additional Russian oil to ease price pressure in the oil market. “If oil prices spike again, perhaps because Iran steps up its attacks on oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, pressure to lift Russia sanctions will build further,” Robin Brooks, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said in a social media post. Bessent said earlier on Thursday that any benefit for Russia from US actions would be “unfortunate” and short-term. “We hope that it will be a micro period that they will benefit,” he said on the Master Investor Podcast with Wilfred Frost.

NASA clears Artemis moon rocket for an April launch with four astronauts after repairs Topic:Space

2h ago 2 hours ago The rock sits on the launch pad, attached to a huge metal scaffold apparatus. NASA’s Artemis II SLS moon rocket with the Orion spacecraft in Cape Canaveral, Florida. (AP: John Raoux)

In short: A launch window of early April has been set for the Artemis II launch, with NASA saying astronauts could blast off as early as April 1.

The launch will mark humanity’s first trip to the moon in more than 50 years and pave the way for future lunar exploration.

What’s next: If NASA does not launch within the six day window, the mission will be delayed until late April or early May.

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Share NASA has cleared its moon rocket for an April launch with four astronauts after completing the latest round of repairs.

The 98-metre rocket will roll out of the hangar and back to the pad next week at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center, leading to a launch attempt as early as April 1.

It will mark humanity’s first trip to the moon in more than 50 years.

Artemis 2 is attached to a now lit launch apparatus, and stands next to the NASA hanger. The sky is a deep purple colour behind. Artemis II has been cleared for a launch attempt as early as April 1. (AP: John Raoux)

The Artemis II crew should have blasted off on a lunar fly around earlier this year, but fuel leaks and other problems with the Space Launch System rocket interfered.

Although NASA managed to plug the hydrogen fuel leaks at the pad in February, a helium-flow issue forced the space agency to return the rocket to the Vehicle Assembly Building for repairs, bumping the mission to April.

The space agency has only six days at the beginning of April to launch, otherwise it will have to stand down until a new window between April 30 and early May.

NASA ‘playing Russian roulette’ with astronauts’ lives, ex-engineer says The orion spacecraft, with the moon, and Earth in the background. After years of delays, NASA’s Artemis II mission is aiming to launch next month. But issues with the heat shield are causing some people to raise the alarm.

“It’s a test flight and it is not without risk, but our team and our hardware are ready,” Lori Glaze, NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate associate administrator, said .

Dr Glaze and other NASA officials declined to provide the risk probabilities for the upcoming mission.

John Honeycutt, chair of the mission management team, said history had shown that a new rocket had essentially a 50 per cent chance of success.

“There’s so much gap since the only other SLS flight — more than three years ago without anyone on board — that it’s difficult to understand any risk assessment numbers,” Mr Honeycutt said. “It’s not the first flight,” Dr Glaze said.

“But we’re also not in a regular cadence. So we definitely have significantly more risk than a flight system that’s flying all the time.”

Late last month, NASA’s new administrator, Jared Isaacman, announced a major overhaul of the Artemis program to speed things up and, by doing so, reduce risk.

Dissatisfied with the slow pace and lengthy gaps between lunar missions, he added an extra practice flight in orbit around Earth for next year.

That is now the new Artemis III, with the moon landing by two astronauts shifted to Artemis IV.

Mr Isaacman is targeting one and maybe even two lunar landings in 2028.

NASA’s Office of Inspector General warned in an audit this week that the space agency needs to come up with a rescue plan for its lunar crews.

A sign saying artemis and a rocket behind. Fuel leaks and other problems with the Space Launch System rocket have interfered with the luanch date. (AP: John Raoux)

Landing near the moon’s south pole will be riskier than it was for the Apollo astronauts closer to the equator given, the rough polar terrain, according to the report.

The report cited the lunar landers as the top contributor for potential loss of crew during the first few Artemis moon landings. It listed the space agency’s loss-of-crew threshold at one-in-40 for lunar operations and one-in-30 for Artemis missions overall.

Contracted by NASA to provide the moon landers for astronauts, Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin have accelerated work in order to meet the new 2028 target date.

The inside story of the Challenger disaster A forked white cloud against a dark blue sky, with a fiery orange ball at the join of the fork. Forty years ago, the Challenger space shuttle disintegrated just after lift-off. A small team of engineers tried to prevent the tragedy.

The inspector general’s office said many technical challenges remained, including refuelling their landers in orbit around Earth before flying to the moon.

NASA sent 24 astronauts to the moon during Apollo, 12 of whom landed on it. All but one of the moonshots — Apollo 13 — achieved their prime objectives.

The program ended with Apollo 17 in 1972.

Posted 2h ago2 hours ago Promotion David Speers and ‘ABC National Forum’ title with the ABC iview logo. Text reads: Big Ideas, Crucial Conversations — Stream Now. Related stories NASA revamps Artemis Moon landing program Topic:Space Exploration

A rocket stands tall in the distance. A sign to the left of the picture, in the foreground, reads Artemis. NASA boss blasts Boeing and space agency for botched Starliner flight Topic:Spacecraft

A spacecraft is blasting off from a launchpad with loads of smoke underneath ‘Dying’ satellite leaves Australia’s north waiting hours for latest fire information Topic:Fires

A render of a cuboid gold-plated satellite with a large solar panel array in space, orbiting the Earth. Related topics Space

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With the world reverberating to the risks of an oil-price shock, Latin America is actually poised to strengthen its geopolitical position. If it wants to capitalize on this moment, it needs to sharpen its collective bargaining power, set aside its ideological divisions and bolster domestic policy, particularly on crime and insecurity.

According to a recent report by Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Latin America is one of the few parts of the world where persistently higher oil prices could actually translate into stronger economic growth.

The impact, of course, won’t be uniform: Large net exporters such as Brazil, Guyana or Colombia stand to benefit far more than major importers of fuel and natural gas like Mexico or Chile.

Food and gasoline price pressures could still trigger social unrest and force governments to expand subsidies amid fiscal constraints. And to be sure, a world of heightened financial volatility is rarely kind to emerging markets.