But, lo and behold, I have come upon something commendable published by them: an early December 2025 analysis of the acutely depleted United States air defense missile inventories, authored by Wes Rumbaugh.

In his report, Rumbaugh touches upon all four of the US missile defense interceptors: PAC-3, THAAD, SM-3, and SM-6. But for the purposes of this article, we shall confine ourselves to the topic of the THAAD anti-ballistic missile interceptors.

First, a reminder of the history of the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense interceptor. Few people recall now how many years THAAD languished in its development and testing phase. It was so woefully ineffective that the program was nearly canceled on multiple occasions, was saved as a result of various political considerations, and only went to operational status after the Pentagon repeatedly dumbed down the testing scenarios until it could finally intercept a target missile.

In short, it was widely considered a debacle. Nevertheless, the Pentagon has now managed to procure eight THAAD batteries — or rather seven and a half. The eighth is a "Minimum Engagement Package" which only includes three launchers.

A single THAAD battery consists of six launchers, with eight interceptors per launcher, for a total of 48 interceptors per battery.

As of the start of the June 2025 "12-Day War" the total number of THAAD interceptors in the US inventory numbered 534, according to Rumbaugh's research.

However, it appears Rumbaugh failed to account for as many as 120 that have been delivered to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to load the partial THAAD batteries they have purchased. I'll round it off to 100 to be conservative.