On April 5 (local time), the Iran War Cost Tracker portal published a detailed report on the US financial burden in the Middle East conflict. These calculations are based on data from the Pentagon's hearing before the US Congress on March 10.
Accordingly, in just the first 6 days since the conflict broke out, the US spent up to 11.3 billion USD. Currently, it is estimated that each subsequent day of fighting costs the defense budget an additional 1 billion USD.
The joint military campaign between the US and Israel targeting Iran began on February 28, with airstrikes on many major cities, including the capital Tehran. In response to this move, the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched retaliatory attacks targeting Israel and a series of US military facilities in regional countries such as Bahrain, Jordan, Iraq, Qatar, Kuwait, UAE and Saudi Arabia. The widespread war situation has pushed US military operating costs to high levels in a short time.
The average spending of 1 billion USD per day reflects the scale of combat operations, from logistics, fuel to high-tech guided weapons. The figure of more than 42 billion USD in more than a month of fighting is leading to discussions in Washington about the sustainability of the budget.
Economic experts believe that if the conflict does not soon have a diplomatic solution, this financial burden could put pressure on other US spending programs in the next fiscal year.
Currently, the Pentagon has not made official comments on the updated figures from the independent monitoring portal. However, on-site reports show that the intensity of fighting remains high as both sides continuously increase firepower.
In the context of the energy supply chain in the Strait of Hormuz being affected, the actual cost of the war to the economy may be even more volatile than purely military statistics. This budget spending is putting the US administration in a position to carefully consider between strategic goals and long-term financial sustainability.
