Iran War Has Cost $38 Billion, CBO Estimates, With $3 Billion Monthly Rise
The six-month U.S. war against Iran has cost $38 billion through August 1 and is projected to rise by $3 billion a month, the CBO says.
The U.S. war against Iran has cost $38 billion in its first six months and is projected to climb by roughly $3 billion each month, the Congressional Budget Office said on Tuesday, tallying expenses through August 1.
The nonpartisan agency's accounting puts the conflict close to the $37.5 billion figure Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth cited at a Senate hearing on July 21. The CBO also estimated the war will push inflation up by 0.5% in the first three months of 2027.
Most of the expense stems from a rapid drawdown of munitions, with the budget office estimating it could take five years to replenish U.S. stockpiles. The shortfall in critical munitions, including missile interceptors, risks limiting the Pentagon's ability to respond to another major conflict, such as potential hostilities involving China and Taiwan, the report said.
At the July hearing, Hegseth sought nearly $90 billion in emergency funding to restock supplies, warning of "critical shortfalls" without it.
The CBO prepared its analysis at the request of Representative Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania, the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee. Boyle said the report showed the war had cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars while driving up prices, and noted the human toll as well. Eighteen U.S. service members have died in the conflict.
The Department of Defense did not cooperate with congressional financial auditors, the CBO reported. The White House and the Pentagon did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Energy shocks from attacks in the Strait of Hormuz — the narrow waterway that carried roughly 20% of the world's oil before the war — and on energy facilities in neighboring Gulf countries have sharply raised prices for consumers and global producers. The report did not include costs from recent strikes on commercial vessels in the strait or attacks on U.S. military installations in the region, nor the borrowing expenses of financing the war, which could add tens of billions of dollars.
The rising costs come as U.S. public debt surpassed $40 trillion in August. President Donald Trump has regularly contrasted the Iran war with the U.S. invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. The eight-year Iraq war cost $2 trillion, while the two-decade conflict in Afghanistan cost $2.3 trillion, according to Brown University's Costs of War project.