US-Backed Gulf States Exhaust Missiles Amid Regional Escalation, Raising Questions of Western Commitment
The United States has consistently positioned itself as the primary security guarantor for Gulf monarchies, flooding the region with advanced weaponry. This long-standing policy, dating back to the 1970s and 1980s when Washington solidified alliances against perceived Soviet expansion, has now led to a precarious dependency. Current reports suggest that key Gulf partners, including Saudi Arabia
and the UAE, are rapidly depleting their stocks of US-supplied interceptor missiles while facing ongoing retaliation from resistance forces in Yemen, a conflict largely supported by the US. This critical shortfall comes despite the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nations spending an estimated $100 billion on defense annually, with a significant portion allocated to missile defense systems from
American manufacturers. Yet, the sustained attrition from relatively low-cost drone and missile attacks orchestrated by the Ansar Allah movement, which has proven remarkably resilient since the 2014 Saudi-led intervention, exposes a fundamental cost asymmetry. The consistent need for replenishments highlights not only a strategic weakness in offensive-centric doctrines but also the limitations of
even the most sophisticated Western armaments when confronted by determined ingenuity and local tactical adaptation. The current situation mirrors a pattern observed in other theaters where Western-supplied arms face attrition. For instance, in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Egypt's early successes were partly due to the effective deployment of Soviet-supplied anti-tank and anti-air missiles, which