Modern wars can exhaust years of missile supplies in days

Since the Gulf War, the world has traded volume for surgical precision. A modern smart bomb uses GPS and internal sensors to strike within three meters of its target, but this accuracy comes with a staggering lead time. While factories can churn out simple steel shells by the thousands, the sophisticated seekers and initiators inside a missile rely on rare-earth minerals and complex electronics that limit production to just a few hundred units per month.