Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org<\/p>\n
The cost of operations against Iran has risen to $29 billion, a senior Pentagon official told lawmakers May 12, a $4 billion increase from the Department of Defense\u2019s last public estimate two weeks ago.<\/p>\n
The figure was provided by Jules \u201cJay\u201d Hurst III, the Pentagon\u2019s acting comptroller and chief financial officer. Hurst said the cost estimate is not yet comprehensive\u2014in part because it does not include the cost of damaged bases\u2014and is still being evaluated.\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cThe joint staff team and the comptroller team are constantly looking at that estimate,\u201d Hurst told House members. \u201cNow we think it\u2019s closer to $29 [billion]. That\u2019s because of updated repair and replacement of equipment costs, and also just general operational costs keep people in theater.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hurst offered the estimated during estimate during back-to-back hearings before the House and Senate appropriations defense subcommittees, where he testified on the Pentagon\u2019s $1.5 trillion budget request for fiscal 2027, alongside Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force Gen. Dan Caine. In an earlier April 29 hearing before the House Armed Services Committee, Hurst and Hegseth provided a lower cost estimate,<\/a> saying the operations against Iran had cost around $25 billion, mostly in munitions. That figure also included operations and maintenance and \u201cequipment replacement,\u201d Hurst said at the time.<\/p>\n U.S. airstrikes on Iran began on Feb. 28. Before the U.S. and Iran agreed to a ceasefire on April 7, the U.S. struck over 13,000 targets and intercepted 1,700 Iranian missiles and drones, Caine told reporters last month.<\/p>\n The U.S. has conducted limited airstrikes since the ceasefire and has imposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports since April 13. Over the course of the conflict, hundreds of combat aircraft have been employed, as well as over 20 warships, including three aircraft carriers\u2014one of which has now left the region\u2014and an amphibious assault ship. Over 100 aircraft<\/a> are helping enforce the ongoing blockade, according to U.S. Central Command. Around two dozen B-1B Lancer<\/a> and B-52 Stratofortress<\/a> bombers used in strikes against targets in Iran are still based in England, and some of the aircraft have flown training sorties since the ceasefire.<\/p>\n The Pentagon is not factoring the cost to repair its bases in the Middle East, Hurst has said. Over a dozen U.S. military facilities in the region have been attacked, with significant damage in some locations. Radars, aircraft, buildings, and other infrastructure have been damaged or destroyed, according to satellite imagery<\/a> and people familiar with the matter. Pressed by lawmakers, Hurst said there are too many uncertainties to make a judgment, including what military presence the U.S. will maintain in the region in the future.\u00a0\t\t<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a lot of unknowns there,\u201d Hurst told the Senate subcommittee. \u201cWe don\u2019t know what our future posture is going to be. We don\u2019t know how we construct those bases. We don\u2019t know what part our allies or partners can pay into the cost. And so we don\u2019t have a good estimate for that.\u201d<\/p>\n More than 400 troops have been injured, largely in Iranian attacks on bases during the conflict. Thirteen Americans have been killed in action, and one Soldier died in what the Pentagon said was a non-combat incident.<\/p>\n Dozens of U.S. aircraft have also been severely damaged or destroyed<\/a> either on the ground or by hostile or friendly fire, including two dozen MQ-9 Reaper<\/a>s, four F-15E Strike Eagle<\/a>s, one A-10 Thunderbolt II<\/a>, an E-3 Sentry<\/a> AWACS, and multiple KC-135 Stratotanker<\/a>s.\u00a0<\/p>\n U.S. forces also intentionally blew up two MC-130 Commando II aircraft and Special Operations helicopters after the MC-130s got stuck in Iran on a makeshift runway during a mission to save the weapons systems officer of an F-15E that was shot down by Iran. Both aviators were rescued.\u00a0<\/p>\n The full extent of damage to some aircraft is not publicly known, including the damage to a U.S. Air Force F-35 Lightning II<\/a> that was hit by Iranian fire and damage to multiple tankers struck by shrapnel at Prince Sultan Air Base.\t\t<\/p>\n \u201cRepair of aircraft is something that\u2019s very hard to calculate. We want to do a full diagnosis of the aircraft before we estimate that cost,\u201d Hurst said. \u201cThat\u2019s included. That\u2019s what we have right now. But it\u2019s an estimate, especially for repair costs, and so that could change over time.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The Pentagon is expected to send a request for supplemental funding to Congress, but has been cagey on how much money it will request and when, prompting bipartisan frustration from lawmakers.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen it\u2019s relevant and required, we\u2019ll share it,\u201d Hegseth said.<\/p>\n Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), the top Republican on the House subcommittee, told Hegseth that \u201csooner is better than later.\u201d Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), the subcommittee\u2019s top Democrat, requested a detailed breakdown of the costs of the war by the end of next week.<\/p>\n Senate Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) said May 12 during an event hosted by the Defense Writers Group that the Pentagon has yet to provide lawmakers with a detailed cost breakdown.\t\t<\/p>\n \u201cWe have no information. It\u2019s a ballpark figure,\u201d Reed said of the Pentagon\u2019s cost estimate. \u201cWe\u2019re being asked to put up $1.5 trillion and a supplemental, and they can\u2019t explain what they\u2019ve done with the money we give them. It\u2019s preposterous, but that\u2019s what they\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n The Pentagon has expended thousands of pricey precision munitions during the conflict<\/a>, including more than 1,000 JASSM air-launched cruise missiles and more than 1,000 Tomahawk cruise missiles, according to U.S. officials, open-source estimates, and an analysis<\/a> from the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The U.S. has also used 1,000 Patriot interceptors, and hundreds of other THAAD, SM-3, and SM-6 interceptors, according to the think tank.\n<\/p>\n Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110996,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[31823,11283,12742,34,32471,29145,772],"class_list":{"0":"post-110995","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-iran","8":"tag-2027-budget","9":"tag-budget","10":"tag-gen-dan-caine","11":"tag-iran","12":"tag-jack-reed","13":"tag-jay-hurst","14":"tag-pete-hegseth"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116564282738023216","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}