Pentagon: Iran war has cost US estimated $25B so far
A supplemental request won’t be delivered to Congress until the Pentagon fully assesses the war’s cost, a top budget official told House lawmakers.
WASHINGTON – The US military's war campaign against Iran has cost $25 billion so far, the Pentagon's top budget official told House lawmakers on Wednesday.
“So approximately this day, we're spending about $25 billion on Operation Epic Fury,” Jay Hurst, the Defense Department's comptroller, told members of the House Armed Services Committee. “Most of that is in munitions” and some has gone to operations and maintenance, he added.
Heart’s comments mark the first public accounting by a Trump administration official on the cost of the war, which began on Feb. 28.
President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have refused to put a timeline on the war, which shifted earlier this month from offensive US and Israeli strikes to a war of mutual economic attrition, raising the stakes of global economic downturn.
Iran's leaders have refused to end their de facto blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, citing the US Navy's sustained embargo of Iran's ports.
The White House will deliver a supplemental request to Congress once the war's full cost has been assessed, Hurst said.
Hurst testified before the panel on Wednesday alongside Hegseth, who vigorously defended the Trump administration’s approach to the war, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine.
Their testimony comes as House and Senate lawmakers prepare to weigh the Trump administration's unprecedented $1.5 trillion Pentagon budget request.
While Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) reiterated his support for the DOD’s request, the top democrat on the House panel, Adam Smith (D-Wash.) called it “hopelessly unrealistic.”
Smith used his opening remarks to rebuke the Trump administration’s strategy in the war with Iran.
“We're not in this for a tactical advantage. We're in this to fundamentally change Iran. And as we sit here today, Iran's nuclear program is exactly what it was before this war started.”
Trump has told top aides to prepare for an extended blockade of Iran's ports, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.
This developing story has been updated since initial publication.
