Slate reported on April 23, 2026, that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth informed Estonia's defense minister that the delivery of munitions for the HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System) platforms Estonia purchased from the United States — including Precision Strike Missiles — would be delayed indefinitely. The reason: U.S. stockpiles were burned through during the 39-day Iran bombing campaign.
Estonia contracted for the HIMARS systems in 2022, after watching their effectiveness in Ukraine. The initial launchers arrived in Estonia last year; the U.S. embassy in Tallinn called the purchase “one of the most significant capability upgrades in Estonian military history.” Estonia sits on NATO's eastern border with Russia and has built its territorial defense doctrine around the assumption that U.S. weapons would be delivered as contracted.
Estonia's Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur said the postponement would undermine deterrence on the eastern flank of NATO. He indicated Estonia would “certainly have to review our decisions” regarding future arms procurement from the United States if delays continued — signaling a potential shift toward European suppliers.
The underlying cause is documented. The New York Times, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and Air & Space Forces Magazine reported the same week that the Iran war drained U.S. stockpiles to levels “no longer sufficient to confront a near-peer adversary” like China. CSIS calculated that key defensive systems are at 40-80% depletion, with replenishment timelines ranging from 42 to 64 months. Approximately 1,200 Patriot interceptors and 1,100 JASSM-ER cruise missiles — the exact systems Estonia would need in a Russian contingency — were fired in a theater where no near-peer adversary was present.
The broader consequences are strategic, not tactical. If NATO allies watching the Iran aftermath conclude that U.S. defense contracts are not reliable, they will hedge by developing independent European procurement — a shift that would erode the industrial base underlying American military-diplomatic leverage for a generation. The delays to Estonia's munitions land the same week a leaked Pentagon memo surfaced proposing to suspend Spain from NATO and review British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands as punishment for allies who declined to join the Iran war. An administration that is simultaneously punishing allies for not fighting and failing to deliver weapons it contracted to deliver is, structurally, reducing the incentive for any ally to rely on it.