When the world's at stake,
go beyond the headlines.

A lot happens every day. Alliances shift, leaders change, and conflicts erupt. With In Brief, we’ll help you make sense of it all. Each week, experts will dig deep on a single issue happening in the world to help you better understand it.***The United States has deployed 100 servicemembers and one of its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense systems (THAADs) to Israel to protect in the case of a retaliatory Israeli strike against Iran, which launched more than 180 ballistic missiles at Israel earlier this month. We asked three experts to tell us more about how this, and the United States’ continuing support of Israel in its wars in Gaza and, now, Lebanon, could affect U.S. readiness around the world.Read more below.Carlton Haelig  Fellow, Defense Program Center for a New American SecurityThe air and missile threat landscape in the Middle East pales in comparison to what the U.S. military faces in the Indo-Pacific. Yet, the U.S. Navy has expended a tremendous number of critical defensive munitions during recent operations in the Middle East, exacerbating long-standing concerns that the U.S. military is unable to supply the air- and missile-defense munitions it needs in the Indo-Pacific. For instance, in one engagement with Iranian ballistic missiles targeting Israel in October 2024, the U.S. Navy’s USS Bulkeley and USS Cole fired more SM-3 missile interceptors from their position in the Eastern Mediterranean than the Navy produces in an entire year.Moreover, the U.S. Army’s deployment of one of its only seven terminal high altitude area defense anti-missile batteries is a risky diversion of capabilities that are needed in the Indo-Pacific. The terminal high altitude area defense system is a crucial component of the overall defensive posture of U.S. forces in the Indo-Pacific, where they contribute to the defense of major U.S. bases under threat of Chinese missile attack.Though