“You’re losing missiles at a rate that’s much faster than you can produce them,” Jennifer Kavanagh, a director of military analysis at the think tank Defense Priorities, told DealBook. She cited Israel’s 12-day war against Iran in June, when the U.S. deployed about a quarter of its roughly 600 THAAD missile interceptors….
The battlefield costs add up quickly. Kavanagh estimates that the U.S. “easily” spent more than $10 billion on air-defense systems in the current war’s first 48 hours. That is largely attributed to the high-end weapons systems, such as the THAAD ($12.7 million per interceptor missile) and the Patriot ($3.7 million per missile), used to strike down attacking drones and missiles….
Who stands to profit? Shares of large military contractors—including Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, both of which make elements of the missile-defense systems—have jumped this week. But the big winners in the long term may be start-ups, like the drone maker Anduril, that “can respond more quickly to changes in demand,” Kavanagh said.
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