During the first six days of the war in Iran, the bill for the United States amounted to $11.3 billion, or 9.8 billion euros. This figure was shared by Pentagon officials with senators on the defense appropriations subcommittee during a closed-door meeting. The New York Times was the first to report this information, with the $11.3 billion figure being confirmed by three sources to ABC News.
Senator Chris Coons, the top Democrat on the subcommittee, verified the Pentagon’s number, labeling it as “almost accurate.” However, this amount does not include the deployment of military equipment and personnel before the initial strikes on February 28, nor the additional resources deployed since Iran surprised the U.S. and Israel by not immediately surrendering.
This is considered the most comprehensive estimate to date, as an earlier amount mentioned at Congressional hearings cited $5.6 billion in ammunition used during the first two days of the conflict. The Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank affiliated with Georgetown University, estimated that the initial 100 hours of the operation cost $3.7 billion, or $891.4 million per day.
Last week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Dan Caine assured that the Navy would use its stocks of laser-guided bombs and avoid the most expensive precision munitions. The Navy used AGM-154 glide bombs in the first wave of bombings, costing between $578,000 and $836,000 each. These were acquired by the U.S. Navy over twenty years ago.
The U.S. Navy, like the Israeli Air Force, now relies on smaller GPS-guided munitions like the Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM), which cost $39,000 each, including the guidance system.
Despite using some of their most expensive munitions, the U.S. targeted the heavily fortified Taleghan site on March 6 with the 13,600 kg GBU-57/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator bunker-buster bombs.
The utilization of these bombs marked the first time they were used in June during the American strikes on Iranian nuclear sites in the Midnight Hammer operation. The cost of each GBU bomb, considering its power and technology, is estimated to be $370 million.
Funding for operations in Iran comes from the Pentagon’s budget already allocated by Congress. No additional funding has been approved for Iran, and lawmakers from both political parties state that the White House has not requested additional credits yet.
