Overview
- U.S. Central Command told lawmakers that its Sept. 3 estimate put the war’s cost at $43.6 billion, with $28.1 billion of that devoted to replacing spent munitions.
- The Pentagon informed Congress it reported a $45.1 billion total after adding roughly $1.5 billion for extra fuel to the CENTCOM figures.
- The publicly reported totals do not include repair costs for hundreds of buildings and structures at U.S. bases across Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman and Jordan, according to a Pentagon inspector general report.
- The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office had estimated $38 billion through Aug. 1 and projects the campaign will continue to cost about $2 billion to $3 billion per month, driven largely by expensive interceptors and other munitions.
- Officials warn that shortages of missile interceptors and supply‑chain bottlenecks for solid rocket motors and propellants could take years to fix, a strain that could raise costs, pressure fuel and insurance markets, and shape congressional fights over supplemental funding.