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United States Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said that the months-long US-led war on Iran is estimated to have cost about $۳۷.۵bn so far, asking for twice that amount to continue fighting.
Hegseth provided the estimate during an intense session in Congress on Tuesday while speaking to lawmakers of the Senate Appropriations Committee (SAC), where he attempted to justify additional funding requests for a conflict that Washington claimed to have won months ago.
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The new estimates are significantly higher than previous figures Trump administration officials provided between April and June.
Democrat and Republican senators grilled Hegseth and General Dan Caine, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, over the cost of the war and the US’s failure to show results.
“Secretary Hegseth, despite your failure to win this war, you are back now before Congress asking for almost $۷۰bn in additional funding,” Senator Gary Peters, a Democrat, said. “You are asking the American people for a blank cheque.”
“We need straight answers,” Republican Senator John Kennedy added during the tense questioning.
The testimony came as a June agreement between Tehran and Washington has broken down, and as the US has launched ۱۱ consecutive nights of attacks on Iran.
The US has already racked up thousands of dollars in weapons bills since the war began on February ۲۸, and is increasingly using up its stockpiles.
At least ۱۸ US service members are dead, and about ۵۰۰ are injured. Globally — including in the US — petrol prices and living costs are soaring.
Here’s what we know about Hegseth’s war maths:
How much has the US spent on the war so far?
Hegseth told the SAC on Tuesday that $۳۷.۵bn had been spent on the US’s war on Iran so far.
The amount is much higher than the $۲۵bn estimate the Defense Department had given the Senate in April, during the US’s first phase of the war tagged Operation Epic Fury.
At the time, Assistant Secretary of the Army Jules Hurst III told the House Armed Services Committee that most of the costs had gone to munitions, operations, as well as equipment maintenance and replacements.
Other independent estimates put the war’s costs at about $۱bn a day, reaching more than $۱۰۰bn by mid-July. Trump administration officials have not provided broken-down figures.
Why is Trump asking for $۶۷bn more?
Hegseth also told senators that the US would need an additional $۶۷bn – nearly double the current bill – to keep up the war effort.
“He’s not making this up,” Paul Musgrave, a professor at Georgetown University in Qatar, told Al Jazeera, adding that this was an unpopular war Americans did not ask for.
“The United States will need to replenish its arsenals [as] the munitions and the airframes that have been used in this conflict need to be replaced,” he said.
US President Donald Trump first requested supplemental funding from Congress earlier in June, spurring Hegseth’s testimony in the Senate.
The White House asked for $۸۷.۶bn in additional funding for the ۲۰۲۶ budget year. More than three-quarters of that, or $۶۷.۱bn, has been earmarked for the Department of Defense.
US weapons stockpiles are running low amid the war on Iran, investigations show, and replenishing them will take billions of dollars and between several months and several years.
Analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies shows that the US has used up significant numbers of its most powerful munitions on Iranian targets.
Stockpiles of at least four munitions – Patriots, THAADs, Standard Missile-۳ (SM-۳), and Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM) are now at ۵۰ percent or less, compared with pre-war levels, according to the analysis.
The additional defence funding Trump’s administration has requested forms part of a $۱.۵ trillion budget proposal for the Defense Department for the ۲۰۲۷ fiscal year, according to Hegseth. The supplement will go towards weapons production and procurement, payroll, operational costs, training, and replacing damaged or lost equipment.
The ۲۰۲۷ defence budget, if approved by Congress, will represent a ۴۴ percent increase in annual US defence spending and will be the highest such budget in the country’s history.
Already, US defence spending in ۲۰۲۶ was at a record high – $۱.۰۵ trillion. Comparatively, Washington spent $۹۱۹.۲bn on defence in ۲۰۲۵.
Hegseth, in his presentation to the SAC on Tuesday, said the additional funds and the record-high ۲۰۲۷ budget were a “generational investment”.
If Congress fails to approve them, the US “will face critical shortfalls that threaten our ability to pay our service members, replenish some of the equipment and munitions consumed during contingency operations and sustain vital global operations without disruption,” Hegseth warned.
What’s the cost of the Iran war to the US economy?
Aside from the direct monetary bill of the conflict, the humanitarian costs in the Middle East, the deaths and injuries to US servicemen, and the mangling of Washington’s reputation as a global superpower, the war on Iran is also painful for the domestic economy.
- Petrol pump prices shot up in the US after the war disrupted shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, where about a quarter of the world’s oil supplies transit through from Gulf countries. While per-litre petrol prices were about $۲.۹۸ before the war, some states, such as California, are seeing a nearly ۱۰۰ percent price increase.
- By July ۲۲, Americans had paid more than $۷۲bn in extra petrol and diesel costs since the war began, according to estimates by Brown University’s Iran War Energy Cost Tracker. That amounts to $۵۴۹ per household.
- Volatile oil prices have also pushed inflation to a three-year high, and interest rates are soaring, according to the Center for American Progress (CAP). The consumer price index, or the average change in prices, rose by about ۴.۲ percent in May, while households are expected to pay an additional $۴.۶bn in interest rates.
How do the Iran war costs compare with other US wars?
The US is the world’s leading spender on defence by far, and its wars, especially, are expensive.
Where the government would historically raise taxes or sell bonds to fund wars, modern wars are funded through borrowing, making their immediate effects less noticeable.
- One of the most expensive wars in modern US history remains the so-called “war on terror” that cost $۸ trillion between ۲۰۰۱ and ۲۰۲۶, according to the war tracker website, War Costs. It resulted in ۷,۰۷۴ American deaths.
- The second world war saw Washington spend $۴.۱ trillion between ۱۹۴۱ and ۱۹۴۵, according to the Navy Department Library. More than ۴۰۵,۰۰۰ Americans died.
- The ۲۰-year-long Vietnam War cost the US the present-day equivalent of $۱ trillion and resulted in more than ۵۸,۰۰۰ American deaths.
- The war in Iraq cost $۶۴۸bn by the US Navy’s estimates in ۲۰۰۸. Between ۱۸۶,۰۰۰ and ۲۱۰,۰۰۰ Americans were killed.
- The Afghanistan war cost $۱۷۱bn by the US Navy’s estimates in ۲۰۰۸. More than ۲,۴۰۰ American troops died.
