Navy down $1 bil­lion in muni­tions and has fend­ed off 130 direct attacks in six months

Navy Sec­re­tary Car­los Del Toro said Tues­day there have been 130 direct attacks on Amer­i­can war­ships in the Mid­dle East over the past six months and that the Navy is out $1 bil­lion in crit­i­cal muni­tions because of it, a fund­ing short­fall he is hop­ing Con­gress will soon cov­er. 
“All roads lead back to Iran,” he told law­mak­ers at a Sen­ate Appro­pri­a­tions defense sub­com­mit­tee 2025 bud­get hear­ing in which he urged law­mak­ers for more mon­ey.

Air­craft prepar­ing to launch from USS Dwight D. Eisen­how­er dur­ing flight oper­a­tions in the Red Sea in Jan­u­ary 2024. (Kaitlin Watt/U.S. Navy/AP)

“Over the course of the last six months, we have encoun­tered over 130 direct attacks on U.S. Navy ships and mer­chant ships,” Del Toro said. “The muni­tions that are crit­i­cal to these coun­ter­strikes are extreme­ly impor­tant to the Depart­ment of Navy. We cur­rent­ly are approach­ing $1 bil­lion in muni­tions that we need to replen­ish at some point in time. The over $2 bil­lion that’s pro­vid­ed for in the sup­ple­men­tal [bud­get] is dire­ly crit­i­cal to our Navy and Marine Corps to be able to replen­ish those muni­tions and con­tin­ue to pro­vide the types of defen­sive mea­sures that we have in these past 6 1/2 months.”
The strain on the Navy’s stock­pile has been on the minds of law­mak­ers and defense ana­lysts since Octo­ber, when Hamas’s attack on Israel led to U.S. forces tak­ing up posi­tions in the Red and Mediter­ranean seas. 
Sen. Pat­ty Mur­ray (D‑WA), chair­woman of the Sen­ate Appro­pri­a­tions defense sub­com­mit­tee, also urged the need to pass the nation­al secu­ri­ty sup­ple­men­tal that has been stalled in the House for months. 
“Iran’s attacks over the week­end are a very stark reminder of the pre­car­i­ous moment that we are in, the press­ing chal­lenges we and our allies face across the globe, includ­ing the fur­ther esca­la­tion of hos­til­i­ties in the Mid­dle East and the urgent need to pass the nation­al secu­ri­ty sup­ple­men­tal,” she said. 
Mur­ray also blast­ed House law­mak­ers for act­ing glib with glob­al secu­ri­ty and the lives of ser­vice mem­bers on the line.
“After so many months of need­less delay from House Repub­li­cans, we’ve got to get this done,” she said. “We need to get it right — as every­one in the room knows, the details mat­ter — and show the world that there is bipar­ti­san sup­port to stand with our allies.”
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