The $25 billion estimate the Pentagon gave to Congress on Wednesday regarding the cost of the Iran war is a lowball figure that doesn’t include the cost of repairing the destruction at US bases across the Middle East, CNN has reported.
Sources told the outlet that factoring in repairs to bases and replacing military equipment destroyed would bring the cost to $40 billion to $50 billion, or likely double what the Pentagon told Congress.
However, the real cost will likely exceed even the figure reported by CNN, as Pentagon officials initially said the first six days cost $11.3 billion, and the bombing campaign intensified after those first days of the war.
According to a report from The New York Times in early March, the $11.3 billione estimate for the first six days was also low since it didn’t account for many of the costs regarding the operations, including the buildup of military equipment and personnel in the region before the US and Israel launched the war.
While putting forward the $25 billion figure during a congressional hearing on Wednesday, the Pentagon also acknowledged that the supplemental funding bill it will request for the war will be higher. According to media reports, the Trump administration may ask for somewhere between $80 billion and $200 billion for the supplemental, and the Pentagon has said that the cost of the war wasn’t factored into its record-shattering $1.5 trillion budget request for 2027.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) questioned the $25 billion estimate and asked US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth what the Pentagon would request for the supplemental. “If and when a supplemental is submitted, the majority of it would not just be for Epic Fury, it would be for munitions related to the entirety of what we want to get done,” Hegseth said.
When pressed further to provide a number for the supplemental, Hegseth wouldn’t say, but added, “On Iran, it would be less than $25 billion, but there’s a lot more we would ask for beyond just Iran.”
Khanna also asked how much it “cost the American taxpayer” to bomb the elementary school in Minab, southern Iran, which massacred 156 people, including 120 boys and girls. Hegseth claimed the incident is still under investigation, though it’s clear from the evidence that the school was hit with US Tomahawk missiles.
