Cost of Iran-US war: Inside Pentagon's $47bn bill as Trump says war will end 'when I want'

The U.S. military has spent more than $47 billion so far prosecuting the war in Iran, according to Pentagon data obtained by Reuters. That was more than 25 percent more than the Defense Department estimated in July.

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on its estimate, which was not shared publicly.

Inside the $47 billion bill

The Pentagon’s latest estimate was linked to the operational costs of waging war, with the projected cost of replacing spent munitions used in the conflict totaling more than $29 billion, Reuters reported.

It claimed more than $6 billion would be needed to replace military equipment and so-called “platform losses,” which include the loss of aircraft, including many drones lost during the war.

The war’s massive price tag does not include the cost of damaged military bases in the Middle East, which is estimated at $184 million in a June 29 inspector general’s report to Congress.

That figure counts damage to US diplomatic facilities in four countries — Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — caused by Iranian strikes, CNBC reported.

The cost to Americans

Meanwhile, Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said on Oct. 12, according to CNBC, that the war has cost American families an average of $2,000 so far, with $1,100 coming from higher energy costs, $540 from higher interest rate costs and $360 from increased military spending.

Why does this money matter?

The disclosure of the rising costs of the Iran war came just days before the Nov. 3 U.S. midterm elections, which determine control of Congress for the next two years.

The Nov. 3 polls are crucial for U.S. President Trump’s Republican Party, which is grappling with the political fallout from an unpopular conflict, inflation and rising gasoline prices.

The war’s impact on global energy costs has hit support for Republican candidates and hurt President Donald Trump’s approval ratings. According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll on Monday, Trump’s approval rating is currently at 32 percent.

According to reports, Trump’s Republican Party has narrow majorities in both houses of Congress.

Trump launched a war against Iran alongside Israel in February and predicted the conflict would last a short time.

Trump says Iran war will end ‘when I want it’

US President Donald Trump has repeated his claim that the Iran war will end “whenever I want” but insists Tehran cannot have a nuclear weapon.

Speaking at a rally in Lubbock, Texas, Trump said, according to CNBC, “Someone asked me before, ‘When will the war in Iran end?’ I said, ‘Whenever I want it to end’.”

Trump said “it would be very quick, but we have to end it properly” with a “full statement” that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.

Iran War: US Plans ‘Short But Intense’ Operation

In the recent past, Trump has repeatedly threatened to launch renewed strikes against Iran after the US mid-term polls.

According to The New York Times, the US and Israeli militaries have drawn up concrete plans for a “short but intense” operation to target Iran’s energy infrastructure, nuclear facilities and arsenal of missiles and drones.

Citing US officials and other people briefed on the talks, the report said the two militaries had stepped up exercises, including flying planes over Iraq to practice strike maneuvers.

According to The New York Times, the US is amassing a significant military force that should be fully in place by early November, including three aircraft carriers, thousands of Marines, fighter jets and special operations forces.

Officials cited political considerations, including Trump’s earlier pledge not to attack Iran before the midterm elections, as reasons why the operation could be delayed.

US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth reportedly met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel to discuss possible renewed strikes.

The report claimed Washington was seeking to use the prospect of renewed military action as leverage in negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program and control of the Strait of Hormuz.

However, Iranian negotiators refused to make concessions on the nuclear issue, insisting that the matter be postponed until later in the talks.

Amid the possibility of renewed strikes, Iran warned it would respond to any renewed military action.

“The United States has the ‘Mother of all bombs.’ We will show them the ‘Father of all bombs,’ and it will definitely be something new for them,” Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) spokesman Hossein Mohebbi said, according to Iran’s state media Student News Network (SNN).

Iran’s warning followed reports that Trump was considering using the 22,000-pound GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB), known as the “Mother of All Bombs,” against Iran’s deeply buried Pickaxe Mountain nuclear facility.

But Tehran did not provide details about the weapon or clarify what the threat entailed.

Trump’s initial strategy in the Iran war focused first on using expensive, high-precision missiles to bomb Iran’s defenses, only to later use cheaper munitions, including gravity bombs such as air-launched JDAMs, of which there are plenty.

However, the April ceasefire gave Iran time to dig up underground storage facilities and put into operation some of Iran’s defense mechanisms, as well as missiles and drones that had been unavailable.

Trump has since imposed a naval blockade on Iran to deprive it of oil export revenue and offered the possibility of resuming combat operations after the midterm elections. U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, say the Pentagon plans to resume heavy fighting if ordered to do so.

The Pentagon’s latest estimate compares with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s July estimate of $37.5 billion in war costs.

While the figures include a range of operational costs, from air operations to cyber support, the estimates of the US military’s war costs in Iran clearly did not take into account the massive costs expected to repair damage to US bases caused by Iranian missile and drone attacks.