Few secrets are more closely guarded than the state of a country’s missile defences.

Knowing how well attacks are working—by observing the effort required to stop them—is valuable intelligence.

So it was striking when, on March 10th, Ukraine’s defence ministry said that in the first three days of the war with Iran, Gulf countries had fired 800 American-made Patriot interceptor missiles at incoming Iranian missiles and drones.

That is more, it noted, than the 600 Ukraine had fired in four years of war against Russia.

The Ukrainians later admitted their numbers referred only to certain advanced Patriots, not all types; they also seem to have been estimates, rather than classified information provided by allies.

But the claims raised important questions—and rough calculations are possible.

How fast are Gulf countries and America running through their Patriot stocks? And how does their use compare with Ukraine’s?

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