The $25 billion estimate that a top Pentagon official gave to lawmakers on Wednesday for the total cost to date of the Iran war is a lowball figure that does not include the cost of repairing extensive damage suffered by US bases in the region, three people familiar with the matter told CNN.
One of the sources said the real cost estimate is closer to $40-50 billion when accounting for the costs of rebuilding US military installations and replacing destroyed assets.
Iranian strikes across the Gulf in the early days of the war significantly damaged at least nine US military sites in just 48 hours, hitting facilities in Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, the UAE and Qatar, CNN has reported.
Several critical US radar systems and other equipment across the Middle East were also apparently destroyed by Iranian strikes, including the radar system for an American THAAD missile battery in Jordan and buildings housing similar radar systems at two locations in the United Arab Emirates, CNN has reported. A US Air Force E-3 Sentry aircraft was also destroyed in an Iranian strike on a Saudi Arabia air base.
Jules “Jay” Hurst III, the Pentagon official currently working as the agency’s comptroller, told the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday that “most” of the $25 billion cost he cited has been spent on munitions, and Secretary of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declined to say whether that figure included repairing damage to US bases.
CNN has asked the Pentagon for comment.
Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna was skeptical of the $25 billion estimate, calling it “totally off” during Wednesday’s hearing. Pentagon officials had previously told Congress the war cost roughly $11 billion in just the first six days alone, and the department asked the White House last month to approve a request to Congress for over $200 billion in additional military funding for the ongoing war, CNN has reported.
During budget briefings for reporters last week, Hurst said the Pentagon does not “have a final number for what the damage is to our installations overseas,” and it depends “on how we decide to rebuild those, or if we do.”
He noted that the cost to repair those facilities is “not reflected” in the Pentagon’s $1.5 trillion budget request for fiscal year 2027, partly because the department is still assessing “what we want to construct in the future.”
“Our partners also might contribute a share for that construction,” Hurst said. “So we don’t have a great estimate for what it would take to reconstitute those facilities.”
The requested $1.5 trillion budget for 2027 would be a 42% increase in the Defense Department’s funding, officials said last week.
The story headline has been updated.
CNN’s Haley Britzky contributed to this report.
