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Pentagon tells Congress Iran war has cost $43.6 billion so far
The latest official estimate sent to U.S. congressional defense oversight panels is the highest to date. It excludes damage to military facilities and several categories of future costs tied to the conflict.
The Pentagon told U.S. congressional defense oversight panels this week that the war with Iran had cost $43.6 billion as of this month, according to a document viewed by CQ Roll Call.
That figure includes $11.2 billion already obligated for operating expenses such as fuel, combat pay, aircraft, medical care and parts, along with $32.4 billion in unfunded replacement costs for munitions, damaged aircraft and other assets.
The estimate, current as of Sept. 3, does not include potentially billions of dollars in damage to U.S. military facilities in eight Middle Eastern countries. It also leaves out future costs that the Congressional Budget Office, or CBO, estimates at $2 billion to $3 billion per month, as well as the effect of inflation linked to war-related shipping route restrictions in the region.
According to CQ Roll Call, the Pentagon’s new partial estimate is close to other figures released in separate reports by the department’s inspector general and the CBO. The CBO said the war had cost $38.1 billion through July, while the inspector general put the total at $33.4 billion through June.
The CBO also said its estimate does not include diplomatic operations or foreign aid, nor costs related to service members killed or injured, future veterans’ health care, disability compensation, or later maintenance for military assets used in the conflict.
In July, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth testified that the war would cost $37.5 billion through the end of September. The Pentagon has also asked Congress for $67.1 billion in supplemental spending, partly to recover war-related costs.
The new estimate reached Capitol Hill at roughly the same time that nearly all Senate Democrats, along with independent Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Angus King of Maine, were joining a letter to Hegseth seeking a full accounting of the war’s costs, CQ Roll Call reported.
Sources
About this piece. Written by El Notero with AI assistance, from reporting published by the outlet cited above. El Notero did no original reporting on this story.
