Patriots in short supply: A launcher from a Polish fire unit stationed to secure Warsaw Airport.Image: keystone
Poland categorically refuses to deploy its own air defense batteries to the Middle East. Other European allies are also taking a stand, which is prompting the US President to launch another sweeping attack.
March 31, 2026, 10:54 p.mMarch 31, 2026, 10:54 p.m
The USA is apparently urgently looking for additional air defense in the Iran war – and has also turned to Poland. Like Polish media on Tuesday reportWashington had informally suggested moving one of the two Polish Patriot batteries in service to the Middle East.
But Warsaw clearly rejected the US request. Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz made it clear that the two systems served to protect NATO’s own airspace and the eastern flank. A relocation is therefore out of the question.
This makes it increasingly clear how much pressure the USA is under in the Gulf – militarily and politically. The background to the American request is massive high-tech ammunition wear and tear. Since the war began at the end of February 2026, the USA and Israel have been attacking targets in Iran, while Tehran has retaliated with missiles and drones.
The result: Western arsenals are emptying faster than expected. In the first days of the war, interceptor missiles worth around $6 billion were fired. In the first few weeks, the deployment amounted to thousands of the latest generation PAC-3 and GEM-T missiles.
According to current calculations by the US portal Bloomberg, the USA has already used around 2,400 of the 2,800 available Patriot missiles in the region. These are numbers that make every hair on the back of the neck stand up in beleaguered Ukraine.
The problem is: Annual production is only 600 to 650 pieces. Concern is therefore growing in Poland that the USA will not be able to deliver Patriot missiles that have already been ordered for years to come; and this without having to pay a contractual penalty for the delivery delays.
The same picture emerges when it comes to offensive weapons: According to the Washington Post, 850 Tomahawk cruise missiles were fired within four weeks – a pace that is even causing internal concern in the Pentagon.
Njets for overflights from Italy and Poland
The White House is reassuring: “The US military has more than enough ammunition and weapons supplies to meet the goals of ‘Epic Fury’ – and beyond,” Trump’s spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt wrote in a statement at the end of last week. Nevertheless, President Trump will encourage his own defense industry to produce more quickly.
But that is only one side of the Washington dilemma. The other is: European NATO allies not only want to stay away from the Iran war, but are increasingly actively refusing any support. Parallel to the no from Poland, it became known on Tuesday how Italy had recently banned several US aircraft from landing at a base on the Mediterranean island of Sicily.
According to the daily newspaper “Corriere della Sera” Defense Minister Guido Crosetto did not give the US military permission to use the Sigonella military airport in order to then fly on to the Middle East. The reason for this was the failure to announce the flights and what purpose they served.
Last week, Spain closed its airspace to US military flights in connection with the Iran war and banned the use of joint bases.
Donald Trump: “Get your own oil”
The nervousness in the White House is becoming increasingly obvious in the face of such developments. Marco Rubio’s “clarification” on Monday about the true US goals in Iran triggered a new flood of criticism and mocking comments: The plans announced at the beginning for regime change and the dismantling of Iran’s nuclear program were suddenly no longer mentioned in Rubio’s four points “to take notes”.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Here are the clear objectives of the operation. You should write them down:
1. The destruction of Iran’s air force
2. The destruction of their navy
3. The severe diminishing of their missile launching capability
4. The destruction of their factories
pic.twitter.com/SrqCtPLlZB— Department of State (@StateDept) March 30, 2026
Instead, the US Secretary of State merely listed what has already largely occurred as a result of the American and Israeli bombings: the destruction of Iran’s air force, navy and unspecified “factories” and the “severe reduction in their missile launch capabilities.”
Donald Trump rounded off this picture of disorientation on Tuesday with another sweeping attack on his allies. All those countries that have so far refused to take part in the “beheading of Iran” should now finally gather their courage. “Get your own oil,” wrote the US President on his Truth Social platform.
BREAKING:
– Trump starts an idiotic war.
– Trump begins to lose the idiotic war he started.
– Trump wants our allies to die in helping us in the idiotic war he started.
– Trump attacks allies, like a toddler for not helping us in the idiotic war he started, and has a… pic.twitter.com/c9axcRwGOd
— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) March 31, 2026
Countries like Great Britain must now learn to fight alone. “Because the USA will no longer come to your aid, just as you weren’t there for us,” Trump raged. His pent-up frustration with the way “Epic Fury” has gone so far couldn’t be shown any more clearly. (aargauerzeitung.ch)