Can Israel and the U.S. Destroy Iran’s Drones and Missiles Before Running Out of Interceptors?

For some time, people thinking about the changing nature of military conflict—especially those examining the recent experiences of Israel and Ukraine and what they might imply for a confrontation between the U.S. and China—have been speaking about the problem of “missile math.” This new form of arithmetic primarily involves two calculations: will one side run out of missiles, rockets, and drones before the other runs out of the interceptors used to shoot them down? Or, more likely, vice versa? And does the high cost of anti-missiles systems, compared with the low cost of drones and rockets, bestow an untenable economic cost on the defenders?