The U.S. churned through $5.6 billion worth of weaponry during the first two days of its war against Iran, highlighting the steep financial cost of the overseas conflict, according to a new report.
The Pentagon provided the estimate to lawmakers Monday, nine days after the U.S. and Israel launched a surprise attack on Iran that ignited a wider conflict across the Middle East and caused hundreds of casualties, three unnamed officials told The Washington Post.
Officials said President Donald Trump’s administration is expected to submit a supplemental defense budget request to Congress in the coming days to help fund its ongoing military campaign — a proposal that could reach tens of billions of dollars.
Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell told the outlet that the Defense Department has “everything it needs to execute any mission at the time and place of the President’s choosing and on any timeline.”
The Pentagon declined to comment on the report to The Independent.
The newly reported $5.6 billion figure appears to conflict with a previous, lower, official estimate on the cost of the war.
The New York Times reported over the weekend that Defense Department officials informed Congress that the first seven days of the conflict had cost about $6 billion. Roughly $4 billion was expended on munitions, including on interceptors used to shoot Iranian missiles out of the sky.
Over a hundred precision weapons, including Tomahawk cruise missiles, have been launched by the U.S. since the outbreak of war, per the Post. Each jet-powered and GPS-guided missile, manufactured by Raytheon, costs about $1.3 million, according to Business Insider.
To date, the U.S. has struck more than 5,000 targets in Iran and sunk more than 50 Iranian vessels, Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a Tuesday press conference. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters that the U.S. is poised to carry out its “most intense set of strikes inside Iran.”
Last Tuesday, U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, said that “guided-missile destroyers are delivering unrelenting, overwhelming firepower from regional waters. DAY and NIGHT.”
But Caine and Hegseth stated last week that the U.S. military plans to shift away from precision munitions in favor of laser-guided bombs, which it holds in greater abundance. Caine had previously warned Trump that a protracted conflict in Iran would risk depleting vital stocks of weaponry, The Independent previously reported.
After the U.S. and Israel began their joint attack on February 28, Iran retaliated by bombarding Israel and allied countries in the region, including Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. To date, nearly 1,000 Iranians have been killed, according to state media, and seven U.S. service members have died, the Pentagon has said.
Trump has not outlined a firm timeline for the war, but he told CBS News on Monday that he believes it is “very complete.”
Following The Washington Post report, a number of social media users expressed criticism of the administration, arguing the expended funds could have been used to aid struggling Americans.
“Trump's war of choice has ALREADY cost us $5 billion,” Sen. Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, wrote on X. “All while he's ripping health care and nutrition assistance away from millions of Americans.”
“$5.6 billion could have paid for over 356,000 Medicare or 568,00 Medicaid enrollees,” wrote one X user. Another chimed in: “Reminder that would cover the entire budget deficit of New York City, the largest city in the United States.”
Polls have shown that Americans are largely opposed to the war. Fifty-three percent of voters are against military action against Iran, while 40 percent support it, according to a new Quinnipiac survey. An additional 77 percent expect it will result in a terror attack on U.S. soil.
