[Anchor]

As the war with Iran prolongs, warning signs are flashing across various parts of the U.S. military. Core weapons are rapidly depleting, and red lights are flashing for the mental health of aircraft carrier crew members who have been floating off the coast of Iran for more than 200 days.

Reporting from Washington, this is correspondent Lee Hanseok.

[Reporter]

The MQ-9 Reaper drone, a core asset for U.S. precision strikes.

Concentrated in operations around the Strait of Hormuz, at least 45 of them—25% of the total inventory—have disappeared.

The stockpile of Patriot missiles, central to air defense networks, has also dropped below the danger threshold of 1,700 rounds.

Bloomberg analyzed that the U.S. military's core ammunition stockpiles are at dangerously insufficient levels.

The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, operating off the coast of Iran, has also reached its limit.

It has been stationed at sea for 208 consecutive days without a port call, an unprecedented feat in modern naval history.

[USS Abraham Lincoln Sailor: The only difficult part has been the mental aspect, like managing sleep.]

[Major Joe Capstaff: It's tough. I told you I had my first child in February. So I am so excited to go home and meet my baby. (You haven't met your daughter yet?) No.]

Due to Iran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, resupply from the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet in Bahrain has been delayed, leading to severe shortages of daily necessities. Issues such as exhaustion and mental health problems are surfacing, including crew members jumping overboard.

The Trump administration outwardly denies these situations.

[Pete Hegseth / U.S. Secretary of Defense: We ensure that every shift, every team, and every captain is provided with everything they need every single moment.]

[Chris Coons / Democratic Senator: I don't think President Trump is listening to these alarming examples that show sailors are being pushed to their limits.]

However, reports have followed that the USS George Washington, which has been deterring China in the Pacific, will be urgently dispatched to the Middle East to relieve the USS Lincoln, raising concerns over gaps in U.S. defense capabilities in Northeast Asia.

With the shortage of interceptor missiles, deterrence against Russia in the Ukraine war is also weakening.

The prolonged war with Iran is spreading into a chain reaction of bad news for the global security landscape.

(Video taken by Park Eun-ha | Video edited by Cho Mu-hwan)