US naval vessels are firing Tomahawk missiles at Iran as they try to destroy the missile launchers and factories on which Tehran relies for its ability to strike back. The calculation is simple: It’s a lot cheaper, safer and more efficient to destroy warheads on the ground than in the air.

This is the same calculation that prompted Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to start campaigning, months ago, for the US to provide him with Tomahawks. He too wanted to use them against missile launchers and factories — in his case, the Russian ones that are fueling nightly volleys against his country and burning up its dwindling supply of US-made Patriot interceptors to bring them down. But the US rate of fire in the Gulf makes such transfers to Kyiv less likely by the hour.

© Bloomberg