New Delhi:
The Pentagon’s top financial officer told lawmakers around $25 billion has been spent over roughly eight weeks in battling sanctions-hit Iran to a stalemate, risking a wider regional war that could devastate the global economy, and triggering the worst global energy crisis on record. But media reports suggest that figure isn’t wholly accurate.
At least three people familiar with the topic told CNN it does not include billions that must be spent on repairing and restoring military bases and equipment struck by missiles and drones.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, grilled by lawmakers Wednesday, refused to confirm this.
But last week a second broadcaster, NBC News (paywalled), referred to inputs from six separate sources, including aides to lawmakers and government officials, to indicate the damage has been more substantial than publicly acknowledged.
The repair bill could run into billions of dollars, the six sources suggested.
The real estimate, one source told CNN, could be a staggering $40-50 billion and involve repairs to at least nine US military bases across Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, the UAE, and Qatar, as well as potential compensation to civilian and energy infrastructure in those countries. And then, of course, Washington must spend on restocking missiles.
Last week The New York Times said Tehran’s asymmetric warfare – i.e., forcing the US into firing $4 million Patriot interceptors to shoot down $50,000 Shahed drones – meant Trump has burned through 1,200+ missiles. The US produced only 600 of these in all of last year. It also used over 1,000 Tomahawk missiles, each of which costs roughly $3.6 million.
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Repair costs have not been added to the claimed bill for this war; this has ‘not been reflected’ in the $1.5 trillion budget FY27 proposal because the Pentagon is still ‘assessing’ the situation.
It is unclear if the cost of restocking missiles and replacing aircraft shot down and equipment – like the AN/TPY-2 radars for the THAAD air defence system – destroyed or damaged by Iran has been added. Each radar costs $500 million to $1 billion.
All this is assuming the fighting stops today.
But President Donald Trump – staring down a War Powers Resolution deadline – has offered no sign this will be the case. On Wednesday he posted a lurid ‘war hero’ fantasy picture on Truth Social with a “no more Mr Nice Guy” warning for Iran.
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And earlier this week Axios said he had rejected a second Iranian peace proposal and ordered “short and powerful strikes” to try and force the Iranians to surrender their nuclear programme.
The actual cost of the war has been a nebulous figure since the fighting began Feb 28.
By the end of the first week The Times, Fox News, and Reuters cited Pentagon officials to put the bill at roughly $11.3 billion, which included an astonishing $3.7 billion the first 100 hours alone.
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By the end of the second government leaks put the number at $16.5 billion and daily costs began to stabilise at around $1 billion, a figure The Times said was in a sealed Pentagon briefing,
And by the end of the fourth week the bill reportedly crossed $25 billion.