By Javier F Ferrero on March 8, 2026
Wars are not won with tweets.
For years, Donald Trump sold the fantasy of quick wars. Surgical strikes, lightning operations, easy and cheap victories that could be announced at press conferences or celebrated on social media. But the reality of modern warfare is less cinematic and much more costly. And now the US president himself is beginning to discover this.
The US administration now recognizes that the offensive against Iran could last up to eight weeks, a very different forecast from the initial messages that hinted at a short campaign aimed at destroying specific targets of Iran’s nuclear program. The difference between a war lasting a few days and a war lasting months is simple: millions of shells, thousands of missiles, and billions of dollars.
The figures are beginning to reveal the scale of the problem. According to preliminary estimates by the Department of Defense cited by The Guardian, the United States spent around $2 billion a day during the first days of the conflict. Even after reducing the pace of bombing, the cost remains around $1 billion a day.
Meanwhile, the US military machine is beginning to show something that rarely appears in war propaganda: limits.
Wars are announced with speeches. But they are sustained by factories, reserves, and logistics.
A war that eats up reserves
The Pentagon itself has had to call an urgent meeting with the main military contractors to try to speed up weapons production. On Friday, March 6, 2026, executives from giants such as Lockheed Martin and RTX (Raytheon) were called to the White House to discuss how to increase the manufacture of missiles, interceptors, and defense systems.
The reason is simple. US reserves are beginning to run out faster than expected.
The intensity of the offensive explains this. According to Admiral Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Central Command, in less than 100 hours of operations, the U.S. military had already attacked nearly 2,000 targets using more than 2,000 munitions.
Each of these attacks involves cruise missiles, guided bombs, or air defense interceptors that cost hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars per unit.
Defensive systems are also under pressure. A report by the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) estimated that by 2025, the United States will have used up to 20% of its available Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) interceptors and between 20% and 50% of its THAAD missiles.
These missiles are not manufactured in weeks. Their production can take months or years.
And yet they are being fired at a rate that exceeds the industrial capacity to replace them.
Modern warfare is not only fought on the battlefield. It is also fought in the supply chain.
As Washington bombs Iranian targets and deploys air defenses to protect Gulf allies, arsenals are being depleted. Patriot interceptors, SM-3s, THAADs, and Tomahawk cruise missiles are being used simultaneously in multiple scenarios.
Iran, for its part, is using Shahed drones, relatively inexpensive devices that fly at low altitudes and can overwhelm defensive systems. They operate on a brutally simple military logic: force the enemy to expend expensive missiles to shoot down cheap devices.
Even Pentagon officials have acknowledged to Congress that these drones pose a greater challenge than expected.
The business of war accelerates
When a war begins to consume arsenals, the real engine of the system emerges: the military industry.
The White House is now considering resorting to the Defense Production Act, a tool created during the Cold War that allows the government to order private companies to prioritize military contracts. At the same time, the Pentagon is preparing an additional budget request of about $50 billion to replenish the weapons used in recent conflicts.
That money would be used to refill the depots that are being emptied in the Middle East.
The industrial machinery is already in motion. Raytheon, the manufacturer of Tomahawk missiles, has signed an agreement to increase its production to 1,000 units per year. Each of these missiles costs approximately $1.3 million, according to data collected by Reuters.
Once again, war has become a gigantic stimulus program for the military-industrial complex.
Bombs destroy cities. But they also guarantee contracts.
The contrast is grotesque. While Washington talks about “strategic advantages” and “power projection,” the numbers tell a different story. In just a few days of war, military spending has exceeded $10 billion.
Money that comes easily when it comes to bombing another country.
Money that disappears when it comes to healthcare, education, or housing.
Meanwhile, US allies in the Gulf are already beginning to recognize similar problems. At least one of those countries has warned that its reserves of interceptors to defend against Iranian missiles and drones are beginning to run low, according to sources cited by CNN.
The concern is not yet panic, the sources say. But the sooner new missiles arrive, the better.
Because there is something that war propaganda tends to hide.
Wars are announced as quick operations. But they almost always end up becoming black holes of money, weapons, and human lives.
And Trump has just discovered that bombing is easy.
Maintaining a war, not so much.
Source: Spanish Revolution, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English