WASHINGTON — The estimated price tag for the war in Iran so far has jumped to $29 billion, up from the $25 billion figure given at the end of April, a senior Pentagon official revealed Tuesday.
Jules Hurst, acting under secretary of Defense who serves as the de facto chief financial officer at the Pentagon, told the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense that the higher amount came from a further crunching of the numbers.
“The Joint Staff team, with the comptroller team are constantly looking at that estimate, and so now we think it’s closer to [$]29 [billion],” Hurst said.
“That’s because of updated repair and replacement of equipment costs and also just general operational costs to keep people in theater.”
During the roughly two-hour-long hearing, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth fielded bipartisan grumblings that the Pentagon hasn’t been more upfront with lawmakers about the more specific costs of the war in Iran.
“We’ll share what we can,” Hegseth said. “When it’s relevant and required, we will share it.”
Lawmakers also raised concerns that the war in Iran has burned through America’s munition stockpile and endangered national security.
Without delving into specifics about what the munition levels actually are, Hegseth contended that America has enough firepower for its needs but that the Trump administration intends to “supercharge” it nonetheless.
“I take issue with the characterization that munitions are depleted in a public forum. That’s not true,” Hegseth countered to House Democratic Caucus Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.)
“Ultimately, we have all the munitions needed to execute what we need to execute, and we’re going to ensure that we supercharge that going into the future.”
Hegseth and his Pentagon posse testified before the subcommittee on President Trump’s $1.5 trillion budget request for fiscal year 2027.
“I would characterize that as a onetime plus-up for catch-up,” Hurst said of the beefed-up budget. “To fix all of our poor and failing barracks and other facilities of the department and also some catch-up investments in AI and autonomy.”
“And so if you look at what we’re doing with [reconciliation], probably about [$]200 billion of that is a one-time expense,” he said.
Hurst indicated that the plan is to “come down to [$]1.23 [trillion] for the requested top line for FY 28.”
“We think we can sustain these investments … with discretionary dollars after this,” he argued.
