India, Aug. 30 -- A shortage in America is thus a shortage throughout much of the Western alliance, creating a cascading crisis of defence capacity. When viewed against the extraordinary expansion of missile arsenals among potential adversaries, this situation is alarming for the West.

When President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took part in the Coalition of the Willing summit in Kyiv last week, emphasising the need for more defensive missiles, he exposed an uncomfortable irony. Many countries who bought the expensive American Patriot systems find themselves without any ammunition to fire from them. Without doubt, Donald Trump's war on Iran has served as a stunning advertisement for the effectiveness of Western missile defence, with Gulf allies r...