Days into the war with Iran and with no clear finish in sight, questions have emerged about simply how much Operation Epic Fury will cost US taxpayers.
The Pentagon hasn’t shared an estimate, and it has but to ask Congress for a supplemental spending invoice for the operation.
“This is highly unpredictable and so we won’t know the cost of it until it’s over.” stated Lindsay Koshgarian, program director of the National Priorities Project at the Institute of Policy Studies, who stated the battle is “not necessary” and is taking away from different insurance policies that would “make life more affordable for Americans.”
“The cost of the war in Iraq ended up being almost $3 trillion,” Koshgarian stated. “So this could, this could be astronomical, easily.”
NCS has talked to suppose tanks and specialists on authorities spending. Here’s a breakdown of what they instructed us:
The war is costing about $891.4 million per day, in accordance to a suppose tank primarily based in Washington, DC, that analyzed the data the Pentagon has shared about targets it struck and the belongings concerned in the operation.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies predicts that the cost will lower as the US shifts to “less expensive munitions” and as the drones and missiles launched by Iran declines.
“However, future costs will depend mostly on the intensity of operations and the effectiveness of Iranian retaliation,” CSIS added in its report.
Air, naval and floor operations shall be the largest bills, in accordance to the CSIS evaluation.
Air operations are expected to cost $30 million per day, and the price ticket for every day naval operations is round $15 million. Meanwhile, floor operations will cost $1.6 million every day.
These are the every day prices of the costliest belongings:
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Tanker and cargo: $9 million
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Carrier air wing: $5 million
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Non-stealth fighter: $5 million
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Stealth fighter: $5 million
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Aircraft service: $6 million
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Destroyer: $5 million
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Artillery brigade: $1 million
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National Guard battalion: lower than $1 million
The US’ strikes on Iran’s nuclear amenities in June 2025, called Operation Midnight Hammer, cost lower than the first 100 hours of army operations that started when the US struck Iran early Saturday morning. Though final 12 months’s operation lasted solely about two-and-a-half hours.
According to CSIS, the first 100 hours of this war has cost $3.7 billion. Meanwhile, Costs of War at Brown University estimated that final 12 months’s strikes cost between $2.04 to $2.26 billion. The undertaking publishes analysis on US army spending and operations.
The main bills throughout Midnight Hammer had been the use of 40 MOP 30,000-pound bombs ($49 to $70 million); 7 B2 stealth bombers (between $31.75 to $37.8 million) and 24 Tomahawks (between $36 to $45.6 million), in accordance to a report from Costs of War.
It is unclear how lengthy the operation will go on for, with the Trump administration offering shifting timelines — two weeks, 4 weeks, six weeks.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stated Wednesday, “We are just getting started,” and added that US forces shall be “accelerating.”
Kent Smetters, school director of the Penn Wharton Budget Model, instructed NCS {that a} two-month war might cost between $40 and $95 billion, relying on whether or not the US places boots on the floor and how rapidly munitions are replenished. The group at the University of Pennsylvania says it gives non-partisan analysis on the fiscal affect of public coverage.
“The type of investment we’re talking about today pales in comparison to” the cost of Iran acquiring and utilizing a nuclear weapon, Smetters instructed NCS on Wednesday, which he stated can be “trillions upon trillions of dollars of damage.”