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Iran has so far inflicted as much as $13 billion in equipment and facility damage on the United States, The Wall Street Journal reported on August 10, citing its own estimates.
Since the start of the U.S.-Israeli military operation against Tehran, “Iran has conducted more than 2,000 air, missile and drone strikes across the Middle East, damaging at least 20 sites in eight countries used by the US military,” the newspaper noted.
In addition, Iran has damaged or destroyed more than 42 U.S. warplanes, mostly large drones, but also including fighter jets.
While realistic, the Journal estimate covers only losses inflicted by Iranian strikes. The total cost of the war, which has so far failed to bring the Islamic Republic to heel, is way higher.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told the Senate Appropriations Committee on July 21 that the war on Iran had cost approximately $37.5 billion so far.
The figure, which included some anticipated personnel, operations, and maintenance expenses through the end of the fiscal year on September 30, marked an increase from earlier Pentagon estimates of about $25 billion in late April and $29 billion in mid-May.
Hegseth made the disclosure while defending a Trump administration request for roughly $67–70 billion in supplemental funding to restock munitions, replace equipment, and sustain operations; the total did not fully account for repairing damaged U.S. bases in the region.
Independent reporting put the fuller cost of the war on Iran significantly higher. NBC News reported that the Defense Department’s internal overall estimate for the Iran war reached $80–100 billion once repairs to damaged U.S. bases, replacement of destroyed aircraft, and complete replenishment of expended munitions and weapons were included.
All of these estimates, of course, deal with the cost for the U.S. only. Israel’s direct campaign expenses were estimated at roughly $13–16 billion, covering munitions, interceptors, and heightened operations, according to Israeli media reports in Globes and Calcalist.
Broader economic assessments put the total burden—including property damage, mobilization of reserves, fiscal deficits, and output losses—at around $59 billion by the end of 2026 and up to $135 billion by 2030, per analyses such as the AHRC study.
Meanwhile, Gulf states, including the United Arab Emirates, incurred infrastructure and industrial damage, higher defense outlays, and economic disruptions from energy-export interruptions and strikes, with some projections indicating multi-percentage-point GDP impacts, as noted in reporting by The New York Times and the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
These huge sums explain the declining enthusiasm for resuming the war on Iran, which is most notable in the U.S. and Gulf states. Still, with no exit strategy, Washington could reignite the conflict in the hope of securing some gains, at least to justify the heavy losses.
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gli americani devono capire che gli investimenti in armi è passivo non creano benessere in economia danno sviluppo e benessere e scienziati.
usa will collapse into a stone age way before iran. 😂