(NBC News)- A top Pentagon official said Wednesday that the cost of the ongoing U.S. war with Iran is estimated to be $25 billion so far, as the conflict nears a 60-day mark.
The cost estimate came from acting Pentagon Comptroller Jules Hurst III, who testified at a House Armed Services Committee hearing alongside Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Dan Caine.
“Approximately, of this day, we’re spending about $25 billion on Operation Epic Fury,” Hurst told the committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash.
He added that most of those costs are from munitions and included operations, maintenance and equipment replacements.
During his questioning time, Smith pointed out that the Pentagon hadn’t updated Congress on the cost of the war since it began and asked whether the Defense Department plans to ask Congress for supplemental funding to finance the ongoing conflict.
“We will formulate a supplemental, through the White House, that will come to Congress once we have a full assessment of the cost of the conflict,” Hurst told Smith.
Later, in the afternoon, the comptroller also promised to provide lawmakers with a cost breakdown of what the $25 billion was spent on following questions from Rep. Maggie Goodlander, D-N.H.
That “just reflects the costs of the war,” he said. “So we’ve already spent the dollars on munitions and things like that, so we’re factoring in costs of munitions expended in that total.”
The total, Hurst said, “reflects the munitions that have been spent to date and other operational costs.”
The explanation prompted criticism from Goodlander, who told Hegseth, “We are 60 days in to your war of choice in Iran and you can’t give us an answer on the basic breakdown of American taxpayer dollars that have been spent?”
She asked Hurst whether the money was taken from funds that had already been allocated elsewhere.
“The department deals with contingency operations all the time within its normal budget,” he answered.
In March, Pentagon officials told Congress that the war cost $11.3 billion in just the first six days.
The cost estimate comes as gas prices continue to soar across the U.S. and around the globe due to the ongoing closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial maritime passageway for oil tankers.
President Donald Trump and other top administration officials on Tuesday met with a group of energy industry executives to discuss topics that included the administration’s possible next steps in continuing the blockade of Iran’s ports and how to minimize impacts on American consumers, a White House official told NBC News.
On Wednesday, Trump warned that Iran “better get smart soon” as negotiations between the two nations stalled.
Earlier this month, several U.S. officials and congressional aides told NBC News that Iran has damaged American military bases and equipment in the Middle East far worse than publicly acknowledged and the damage could lead to billions of dollars in repairs.
The cost of the war is of particular interest to Congress as the conflict is slated to exceed 60 days this week, at which point lawmakers may be called on to approve or reject the ongoing use of military force in Iran. The 1973 War Powers Resolution says that a presidential administration can use military force without congressional approval for up to 60 days, after which the president can request a 30-day extension or Congress can vote to authorize the war.
The Senate has multiple times in the last two months rejected measures that would compel Trump to end the war with Iran. An effort in the House to pass a war powers resolution also failed earlier this month, by just one vote.
