The Pentagon’s acting chief financial officer told members of the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday that the U.S. war against Iran has cost $25 billion so far, The Hill reports.
“So approximately, at this day, we’re spending about $25 billion on Operation Epic Fury. Most of that is ammunitions,” Jules Hurst III said in response to a question from ranking member Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) during a hearing on the Pentagon’s $1.5 trillion defense budget request.
“We 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,” Hurst said.
“I’m glad you answered that question, because we’ve been asking for a hell of a long time, and no one’s given us the number,” Smith replied. “So if you could get those details over to us, that would be great.”
Hurst’s remarks provide an update on the cost of the conflict, during which the U.S. military has used up large quantities of key ammunition, including Tomahawk missiles and Patriot interceptor missiles, severely depleting Pentagon reserves.
In early March, Pentagon officials told lawmakers during a closed-door briefing that the approximate cost of war with Iran in the first six days of action was more than $11.3 billion.
A report from the think tank American Enterprise Institute, published earlier this month, put the estimate of the cost of war at between $25 billion and $35 billion.
