The Iran war cost $38 billion from its start in late February to Aug. 1 and could cost about $2 billion to $3 billion per month going forward, according to a new report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
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The independent estimate is similar to other public estimates: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told a Senate hearing in July that the war had cost $37.5 billion.
“The military requires a generational investment to deliver on peace through strength,” Hegseth said at the time, defending the Pentagon’s overall budget request. “We know the best way to create peace is to prepare for war, to deter it and that’s exactly what the Department of War is doing, building a force so capable that it would be absurd for anyone to challenge it.”
The administration has requested an additional $67 billion to restock the Pentagon’s arsenal and to patch looming budget gaps.
The CBO’s estimate reflects the cost of replacing munitions, increased flying hours and fuel costs, and other operations, but it does not include costs already accounted for in the federal budget, such as basic military operating expenditures.
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If the conflict is sporadic, as it was during a ceasefire in May and June, the CBO estimated continued costs would be about $2 billion per month; costs would be close to $3 billion per month if the conflict intensifies, as it did in July.
“Donald Trump’s disastrous war in Iran has already taken the lives of brave American service members and left others wounded,” said Rep. Brendan Boyle (Pennsylvania), the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, who requested the information from the CBO. “Beyond that human toll, this nonpartisan CBO report makes clear that the war has also cost American taxpayers tens of billions of dollars and counting, while continuing to drive up costs.”
The war has drawn down the U.S. stock of missile interceptors, which will take years to rebuild and could leave the U.S. vulnerable to missile attacks from other countries, such as China, according to the report. The CBO also noted that the estimate is based on government databases and public reports because the Defense Department did not respond to CBO’s request for information.
A report from the Pentagon inspector general released Monday noted that the war has “resulted in strategic inventory shortfalls” of munitions and “revealed industrial base bottlenecks for munitions resupply.” The inspector general noted that the Defense Department is working to speed up the process of producing and buying new weapons and to stockpile critical materials.
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Victoria Craw contributed to this report.
