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The war in Iran has cost about $25 billion so far, Pentagon officials told Congress April 29, providing the first public estimate of the cost of Operation Epic Fury.<\/p>\n
\u201cApproximately, at this day, we\u2019re spending about $25 billion on Operation Epic Fury,\u201d Jules \u201cJay\u201d Hurst III, the Pentagon\u2019s acting comptroller and chief financial officer said during testimony to the House Armed Services Committee<\/a>.\t\t<\/p>\n Hurst said most of that sum is in the cost of munitions, with the balance paying for operations and maintenance and \u201cequipment replacement.\u201d Among the military\u2019s losses have been radars and airplanes, as well as some base facilities.<\/p>\n The Pentagon is planning a supplemental budget request to cover the war spanning, Hurst said, but has yet to compile a complete estimate of the war\u2019s costs, which are continuing.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will formulate a supplemental through the White House that will come to Congress once we have a full assessment of the cost of the conflict,\u201d Hurst said in response to a question from Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash), the committee\u2019s ranking member of the minority. Hurst testified in front of the HASC alongside Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine.<\/p>\n The Trump administration launched the war to block Iran\u2019s potential path to nuclear weapons, administration officials have said, and while much of Iran\u2019s nuclear infrastructure was damaged in last June\u2019s Operation Midnight Hammer, Iran has so far refused to relinquish its stores of highly enriched uranium or to renounce its nuclear program.<\/p>\n The Pentagon has expended thousands of pricey precision munitions in its war against Iran, 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, the think tank estimates<\/a>, and hundreds of other THAAD, SM-3, and SM-6 interceptors.\t\t<\/p>\n Over six weeks of conflict, the U.S. attacked over 13,000 targets inside Iran, according to the U.S. military. Multiple munitions are typically used against a single target. The U.S. military also intercepted more than 1,700 Iranian ballistic missiles and one-way attack drones, Caine said earlier this month.<\/p>\n CSIS estimates the cost of JASSMs and Tomahawks at around $2.6 million each, and missile interceptors at multiple millions of dollars per unit.<\/p>\n U.S. military losses include numerous aircraft<\/a>, among them around two dozen MQ-9 Reaper<\/a> drones, four F-15E Strike Eagle<\/a>s, multiple KC-135 Stratotanker<\/a> refueling aircraft, an A-10 Thunderbolt II<\/a> attack plane, and an E-3 Sentry<\/a> AWACS aircraft, all lost due to either hostile or friendly fire and attacks on U.S. bases in the region<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Damaged aircraft include an F-35 struck over Iran<\/a> and multiple KC-135s, plus pricey radars and other infrastructure<\/a> on various bases.\u00a0The Pentagon has not provided a full accounting of the damage to U.S. facilities and equipment.<\/p>\n Thirteen Americans have been killed in action during the conflict.\t\t<\/p>\n The bulk of fighting took place between Feb. 28 since April 7, with the U.S. and Iran agreeing to an uneasy cease-fire. Since then the U.S. has imposed a blockade on shipping to and from Iranian ports with a force that has grown to 17 U.S. warships and more than 100 planes<\/a>, including Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps fighter jets, surveillance aircraft, and drones, according to U.S. Central Command. Roughly 10,000 U.S. military personnel are participating in the blockade.<\/p>\n