Iran, US, and the Forgotten World War II Lesson

The Iran Crisis of 2026 just exposed the United States has forgotten the lessons of World War II.  A War, not just fought in the seas, landing beaches, and fields, but also in factories. The role of manufacturing, mass production and cost that played a significant role the Allied Victory.

Current Situation

For about a month the United States and Israel exchanged fire with the Islamic Republic of Iran. The allies unleashed their technologically advanced arsenal against the Ayatollah, who perished during the salvo. In vengeance, Iran retaliated with a massive barrage of missiles and drones against American bases and allies in the Gulf.

While the allies relied on technology, Iran took the strategy of saturation. They used old stockpiles of cheap and easy to produce projectiles against the Gulf States. Countries like UAE, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia then intercepted these with sophisticated and expensive weaponry. The situation ironically mirrors the battle between quantity and quality during World War II.

The War of Factories

Behind the cinematics and actions of D-Day Landings, Stalingrad, and Iwo Jima played the battle for production between the Allies and the Axis during World War II.

Techonologically Advanced Axis - during the start of the war, Germany and Japan held technological edge. The genocidal man with a unique moustache loved wonder weapons. No one studies World War II without being introduced to the iconic German Tiger Tanks. This formidable weapon rolled out formidably in the battles in land, while the Japanese Zero Fighter dominated the skies of the Pacific. It launched from the world's largest and advanced carrier fleet in the world under the Imperial Japanese Navy. Besides the carriers, they also unleashed the 2 biggest battleships in the world, the Yamato and the Musashi. Yet despite the advanced weaponry, we are not living in the world of the Man in the High Castle - Japan and Germany lose.

A Tiger captured by the US Army

Challenge of Manufacturing Advance Weapons - The fault lies in the advanced technology itself. Such weaponry required a high level of technical skills and time to produce. And most importantly, it required resources which Germany and Japan lacked in vast quantities. Thus, they churned out wonder weapons here and there, but they failed to field it vast quantity, failing to change the tides of war.

Allied Industrial Might - As the Axis stunned with token wonder weapons, the Allies focused on production scaling and cost efficiency. For instance, the United States' Sherman tank, the Americans produced numerous quantities of this cheap and effective weapon that for every 1 Tiger Tank, they released 40 Shermans. For the Zeroes, Japan produced around 10,000, but the United States produced its counterpart of a more expensive, yet highly superior quality of P-47 Thunderbolt in vast quantities, around 15,000. But America’s capability also extended in the seas.

Mitsubishi A6M Zero

War of Shipyards - The Allied shipyards also deserved recognition for their mass production capability. While Japan concentrated on building the biggest battleships of the world, instead of aircraft carriers, in 1943 alone, the United States produced 6 Essex-class Aircraft. 1944 saw 11 new Essex-class Carriers to Japan's one, the Taiho, which sank in its first mission. Worse, the carriers dominated the seas culminating with the sinking of both Musashi and Yamato. By war’s end, the US took from Japan the crown for the most number of aircraft carriers.

Liberty Ships - another example are the famous Liberty Ships that supplied the allies throughout the war. These ships utilized a modular system of production so shipyards served as assembly areas. Thus by 1942, around 700 Liberty Ships sailed out to battle. In the 2 following years, more than a thousand annually entered service. Their vast number kept the front well supplied, whether the Russian front, European Front or the Pacific Front.

A Liberty Ship in Day 24 of Construction

With that said, World War II gave the lesson, as Joseph Stalin said, "Quantity has a quality all its own.” Advance Technology means nothing if it cannot be produced quickly. Mass production of cheap yet effective quality products would triumph over sophisticated and complicated production. A scenario that played in the Middle East in 2026.

War of Cost

Iran's Shahed drones served as Iran's famous cheap and effective drone and intercepting one tells the current conflict's number in a nutshell.

Iran's Kamikaze Drone - a Shahed Drones, called a kamikaze drone, embodied Iran's weapon mass production. This disposable drone that go only 1 way trip its target, costs around USD 20,000 to 35,000. Iran said to have the capability to produce it in the back of trucks. Cheap, reliable, and easy to produce drones.

Gemini generated image of Shahed 129

Allied Defense - on the other hand, the Gulf States, the US, and Israel used sophisticated defense systems to intercept the shaheds and other balistic missles, such as the THAAD and Patriot Missiles. Each interception cost around USD 4 million. A USD 35,000 drone shot down by a million dollar interceptor.

Moreover, the number of annual production for such interceptors, like the Patriot Missiles, only stand at around hundreds annually. No match to the thousands and cottage industry-style production of the Shahed drones alone. This became the cornerstone of Iran's strategy.

Strategy of Wave Attacks - Iran's saturation strategy aimed to deplete the Gulf State and the Allies' supply of interceptor or at least burden their finances. Iran dumped thousands of cheap and even old projectiles in waves to the Gulf States and Israel hoping to exhaust the supplies of American made weapons. Eventually, with massive barrage firing it overwhelmed the defenses and some missiles or drones managed to hit targets to the horror of the attacked country. 

Strain of War - The saturation now appeared to have been working. Reports now indicated that American supplies of air defenses had dropped significantly threatening their capacity for future threats. More so, the war already cost billions of dollars to the point the Pentagon requested a USD 200 billion supplemental budget from the White House. Drop in future capabilities and billions spent, yet no war objective, if there are such, had been met.

Conclusion

In the end, the United States of America forgot the lessons of World War II. It over-relied in sophisticated and complicated weaponry, so much so that, when faced with a quantity focused enemy, its own capacity to respond in future now stood critically low levels. The lessons of World War II's war of factories should not only be a loss to the Americans, but a model from which the world should now take note. As the age of drone warfare dawns, cost effectivity and mass production now take center stage.

Reference:

Congressional Research Service. Defense Primer: U.S. Military Space Programs. CRS Report R48887. Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 2024. Accessed April 20, 2026. https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R48887.

History Hit. “Facts About the Tiger Tank.” History Hit. Accessed April 20, 2026. https://www.historyhit.com/facts-about-the-tiger-tank/.

National Museum of the Great Lakes. “Restored Liberty Ship (Spring 2000).” National Museum of the Great Lakes. Accessed April 20, 2026. https://nmgl.org/restored-liberty-ship-spring-2000/.

New York Times. “Iran’s Drones vs. America’s Interceptors: The Costs of War.” The New York Times, April 18, 2026. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/04/18/world/middleeast/iran-us-war-drones-cost.html. 

Roblin, Sebastien. “What Made Essex-Class Aircraft Carriers so Powerful?” The National Interest. Accessed April 20, 2026. https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/what-made-essex-class-aircraft-carriers-so-powerful-176913. 

Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. “Mitsubishi A6M5 Reisen ‘Zero’ Fighter Model 52 (Zeke).” National Air and Space Museum. Accessed April 20, 2026. https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/mitsubishi-a6m5-reisen-zero-fighter-model-52-zeke/nasm_A19600335000.

The National WWII Museum. “M4 Sherman Tank.” The National WWII Museum. Accessed April 20, 2026. https://www.nationalww2museum.org/visit/museum-campus/us-freedom-pavilion/vehicles-war/m4-sherman-tank.

The National WWII Museum. “Patchwork Plane Building: The P-47 Thunderbolt.” The National WWII Museum. Accessed April 20, 2026. https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/patchwork-plane-building-p-47-thunderbolt.

Roblin, Sebastien. “Lockheed Martin Wants to Triple New Patriot Missile Production. Can It Deliver?” The National Interest. Accessed April 20, 2026. https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/lockheed-martin-wants-to-triple-new-patriot-missile-production-can-it-deliver-ps-010826.