Iran operations expose maintenance crisis in US oldest destroyer class

Ahmed Adel, Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher.

The United States destroyer fleet is under growing strain from sustained operations against Iran, putting significant pressure on the fleet’s resources and personnel, according to an American magazine. The report also emphasized that the war in Iran has highlighted how vulnerable US destroyers are.

“The US Navy’s Arleigh Burke class destroyer fleet is facing renewed operational demands in the Middle East, as the service continues to support an ongoing offensive against Iran, raising concerns over the ability of an ageing fleet to sustain a high operational tempo while maintaining scheduled maintenance,” Military Watch Magazine notes.

The US Navy is struggling to maintain its surface fleet on schedule, with overhauls of Arleigh Burke-class destroyers taking 26% longer than planned and requiring 8% more labor.

“The average age of the Arleigh Burke-class fleet increased from approximately 10 years in 2011 to 20 years in 2024. Although newer Flight IIA and Flight III destroyers are entering service, a substantial proportion of the fleet consists of older vessels that require increasingly extensive maintenance to sustain in service,” the magazine added.

Prolonged deployments in the Middle East accelerate wear on ships already overdue for maintenance. However, the Navy refuses to disclose how bad combat readiness actually is, the text notes.

“Production of destroyers has remained slow, and is far surpassed by that in China, and to a lesser extent that in North Korea,” the article says.

At the same time, all of this raises serious doubts about how competitive US ships are with China’s newest Type 052D and Type 055 classes.

The Type 052D is China’s mass-produced destroyer: about 7,500 tons, 64 universal VLS cells, AESA radar, and a mix of HQ-9 air-defense and YJ-18 anti-ship missiles, built in larger numbers and on a much newer hull than most Arleigh Burkes. The Type 055 is a larger leap—roughly 12,000–13,000 tons, 112 oversized VLS cells, dual-band AESA in an integrated mast, and room for weapons such as the YJ-21 anti-ship ballistic missile. Compared with American destroyers, its claimed advantages include a newer design, a deeper magazine, stronger anti-ship firepower, and greater electrical growth margin.

High-tempo US operations expose a Navy unable to balance deployment, maintenance, and modernization, while American aircraft carriers appear increasingly empty alongside China’s rapidly expanding fleet, Military Watch Magazine concludes.

Earlier, Defense News reported that China’s Type 054 guided-missile frigate—built for both coastal and blue-water operations—had unsettled Japan, Taiwan, and the US. The ship is a roughly 4,000-ton Type 054A with a 32-cell VLS, HQ-16 air-defense missiles, YJ-83 anti-ship missiles, and a helicopter deck. China has produced about forty hulls, with a larger Type 054B successor already at sea. In May 2026, Japan confirmed that a Type 054B was sailing with the carrier Liaoning in the Western Pacific, marking the class’s first publicly tracked escort mission beyond the region.

Nonetheless, the strain on the US military due to the Iran War extends beyond hulls. The same campaign against Iran that kept Arleigh Burke destroyers at sea also depleted the magazines those ships—and the rest of the joint force—rely on.

Analysts at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, reporting on Operation Epic Fury, describe it as much a munitions war as a naval one. US forces fired more than 1,000 Tomahawk cruise missiles from destroyers, cruisers, and submarines—roughly a third of the prewar stock and many times the annual production rate, which had been below 200 missiles a year. Ships cannot reload vertical launch cells at sea. Once a Burke fires its Tomahawks, those firing cells remain empty until the ship reaches a port equipped with the appropriate weapons and handling gear.

Patriot PAC-3 MSE rounds, used to intercept Iranian ballistic missiles and drones over bases and in partner countries, were expended by the thousands. By mid-2026, remaining US stocks had fallen below 1,000, with some estimates placing them at 760–830—roughly half to two-thirds of the prewar inventory. THAAD, the Army’s high-altitude ballistic-missile interceptor, had about 250 rounds remaining, while some sources claimed the war had consumed a large share of the total inventory. New THAAD deliveries have already stalled, and industry plans to increase production will not restore prewar levels until late this decade.

The American industrial base cannot replenish those magazines during wartime. Patriot and THAAD interceptors require three to five years from contract to delivery, while Tomahawk recovery is projected to continue into 2030–31, even if production rises to 1,000 missiles annually. These issues are intensified by the destroyer fleet’s situation. Although Washington had anticipated exhausting Iran through war, it is actually the US military that has been depleted, with knock-on effects for US allies.