The United States military spent over $5 billion in munitions alone during the first two days of Operation Epic Fury, with war costs appearing to have surpassed $9.4 billion in U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) spending cuts codified by Congress.
The U.S. military launched strikes against the Islamic Republic of Iran on Feb. 28, targeting Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps command and facilities which killed the Supreme Leader of Iran Ayatollah Ali Khameinei and roughly around 49 senior regime and military officials, dealing a crippling blow to the Iranian government structure. The Pentagon used $5.6 billion in munitions within just the first two days of its ongoing Iran operation, according to three anonymous U.S. officials who spoke to The Washington Post.
An anonymous congressional official told the Atlantic that the Pentagon estimated the Iran war’s preliminary cost to be around $1 billion per day and that the Pentagon could request as much as $50 billion in supplemental funding.
Politico reported that senior GOP lawmakers privately expect the Trump administration to request tens of billions of dollars for the Iran war. Some GOP lawmakers heard estimates that the Pentagon is spending up to $2 billion a day, according to Politico.
President Donald Trump told reporters on March 9 the war would end “soon,” but no specific timeline has been confirmed.
The Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) reported the first 100 hours of the Trump administration’s Operation Epic Fury on Iran cost an estimated $3.5 billion. The Iran Cost Ticker, which bases its data on information reportedly supplied to Congress and provided to the Atlantic, estimated over $11.6 billion had been spent as of March 11, exceeding the $9.4 billion in government spending cuts made by DOGE, which Congress codified in a July 2025 recessions package.
DOGE cuts codified by Congress included funding to a PBS children’s programs with drag queens, a PBS produced film celebrating a child’s sex change, and $3 million for an Iraqi Sesame Street, according to a press release from Republican Texas Rep. Nathaniel Moran.
When the Daily Caller News Foundation asked the Pentagon whether the circulated financial figures accurately reflect the real cost of the Iran war, the Pentagon told the DCNF, “We have nothing to provide.”
Brown University’s Cost of War Project estimated the U.S. government spent around $31.35–$33.77 billion from Oct. 2023 to Sept. 2025, which includes $21.7 billion in military aid to Israel and $9.65–$12.07 billion for military operations in Yemen, Iran, and other areas of the Middle East.
The Trump administration has not yet released a public assessment of the Iran war’s cost, according to Politico.
Operation Epic Fury heavily utilized Tomahawk cruise missiles, AGM-158 Joint Air-To-Surface Standoff Missiles (JAASM), and unveiled the Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) in the operation’s first week, according to reporting by National Interest.
A single Tomahawk cruise missile would cost around $2.2 million, according to a Department of War’s defense contract announcement. A JAASM missile costs around $1.6 million, per to the 2024 official Pentagon budget estimate. The PrSM would cost a little over $160 million to purchase in an unknown quantity, according to the 2026 official Pentagon budget estimates.
The U.S. military transferred parts from a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense System (THAAD) and the Patriot missile system stationed in South Korea to the Middle East, CNBC reported. A THAAD interceptor missile would cost around $12.77 million in fiscal year 2025, per the 2025 official Pentagon budget estimate. A single PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement Missile used in the Patriot Missile system would cost around $3.7 million according to a multi-year procurement document from the Office of the Under Secretary of War.
Four people familiar with the Pentagon assessments of used munitions told the Washington Post hundreds of the U.S. military’s most sophisticated munitions, such as THAAD interceptors, Patriot missiles, and Tomahawks, were used in less than a week into Operation Fury.
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine expressed concerns in a February meeting at the White House that major military operations in Iran will be challenging due to munitions depletion from providing aid to Israel and Ukraine, according to The Washington Post.
After the first week of strikes, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced March 4 that the U.S. military moved to use conventional munitions after destroying Iranian air defense systems. Hegseth said the military would use GPS and laser-guided precision gravity bombs, “which we have a nearly unlimited stockpile.”
Chief executives from six top US defense contractors met with Trump on March 6 and agreed to quadruple munitions production according to a Truth Social post the president sent on Match 6. Trump stated in his post that the contractors would produce “‘Exquisite Class’ Weaponry” without specifying what these weapons would be and emphasized the U.S. military has “a virtually unlimited supply of Medium and Upper Medium Grade Munitions.”
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