As US weaponry runs out, “Iranians proved remarkably resilient and adept” at rebuilding after strikes: NYT

Iran has proved “remarkably resilient and adept” at rebuilding after US strikes since the April ceasefire, according to Eric Schmitt of The New York Times, a damning indictment of US military overreach as its weaponry runs out.

On the NYT podcast The Daily, national security correspondent Eric Schmitt said that after the April ceasefire, Pete Hegseth’s claim that Iran has “no air defences, no air force, no navy” was a “fundamental miscalculation.”

The podcast frames the US not being the villain, despite it starting wars and destabilising the world.

The framing is that suggests that Trump is simply stupid — having made a “serious misjudgement and miscalculation” in believing his war on Iran would be over quickly — and Iran’s resilience was simply unexpected.

Interceptors shortage

Interceptors like the Patriot missiles are advanced defense systems designed to knock down incoming Iranian rockets. Roughly 1,500 have been used by the U.S. and allies like Bahrain, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia, which have their own Patriot systems and have been burning through their munitions as they come under attack from Iran, according to Schmitt.

Schmitt said the U.S. has been using Patriots first in Ukraine starting in 2022, where older versions were supplied to help fend off Russian attacks, then in Yemen against Ansarallah, during a 50-day campaign of US and UK air strikes in early 2024 targeting their infrastructure and underground stockpiles, and later in the 12-day war between Israel and Iran in June 2025.

Schmitt said that Iran and Russia’s strengths have caught the U.S. “flat-footed,” as the military was still “caught in this post-9/11 counterterrorism world” and not anticipating the kind of back-and-forth missile exchanges seen in Ukraine and now with Iran.

Obviously Iran’s fault

While Schmitt acknowledged that President Trump made a “serious misjudgment and miscalculation” in believing the war would be over quickly, the podcast’s overall framing places the burden of the crisis on Iran.

Schmitt noted that Iran has “exploited” US vulnerabilities by adapting its tactics, decentralising its command structure, and developing manoeuvrable warheads that “zig and zag” to evade interceptors.

The Iranians, he said, “see the advantage now” and are “pressing for more” concessions in ceasefire talks, recognizing that they have “leverage” over the US as its weaponry runs out. 

China’s fault somehow too

Natalie Kitroeff, Schmitt’s colleague on the podcast, interjected that the US can’t simply order defense contractors to ramp up production. She said:

We’re not China; we don’t have that kind of industrial control over these contractors.

Her comment came as US defence companies like Lockheed Martin continue to post staggering profits while struggling to increase output of the very munitions the military urgently needs.

The podcast never interrogates the deeper American philosophy that drives the endless pursuit of war or the belief that the empire’s global dominance must be maintained at any cost. But at least watching the NYT squirm over the US ill-judging its enemies is worth a listen.

Featured image via the Canary

By The Canary