A US Government watchdog released its first report on the impact of the Iran war on Monday, acknowledging the military’s advanced weapons shortfalls and offering the first public look at the damage to American aircraft, bases and diplomatic outposts in the Middle East. Much of the information has been previously reported over the past six months, but the Pentagon Inspector General’s report offered the fullest official accounting so far of the conflict’s costs in American lives, taxpayer dollars and physical damage. It included information from the watchdogs for the Defence and State departments as well as the US Agency for International Development.

 

The report, whose publication was first reported by NBC News, noted that the US war with Iran “has resulted in strategic inventory shortfalls and revealed industrial base bottlenecks for munitions resupply” in regard to advanced weapons. Experts have previously said it will take about three years for military contractors to replenish advanced missiles and defensive missile interceptors to prewar levels. The report, which covers April 1 to June 30, also acknowledged that Iranian strikes damaged and destroyed hundreds of buildings and other structures at US bases in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman and Jordan. Dozens of American aircraft and drones also were destroyed or damaged.