War Against Iran Costing US Billions
A staggering amount. The first week of the war against Iran has cost the United States over $11.3 billion, as reported by a briefing from Pentagon officials to Congress members on March 10, according to the New York Times. This figure excludes many costs related to the preparation of the strikes, suggesting that the final amount could be much higher. Pentagon officials previously stated that approximately $5.6 billion worth of ammunition had been spent in the first two days of the conflict, a number significantly higher than initial estimates.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), an independent think tank based in Washington, estimated the first 100 hours of the operation at $3.7 billion, more than $891 million per day. While some of these costs are budgeted, the majority ($3.5 billion) are not, as outlined by the CSIS on March 5.
One Billion Dollars a Day
The Iran War Cost Tracker website, which calculates the real-time cost of the war in Iran for the United States, displayed a figure of over $17 billion on Thursday morning. According to this site, the US is spending one billion dollars per day on the war. However, these estimates do not account for long-term consequences, such as caring for veterans or indirect costs.
The Center for American Progress (CAP), which includes indirect costs in its calculations, estimated the cost of the war to be over $5 billion just four days into the conflict. At the current rate of operations, a three-week war could easily exceed tens of billions of dollars, according to the CAP.
