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The United States has spent an estimated $38 billion on its six-month-old war against Iran, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said, warning that the cost is expected to rise by about $3 billion a month going forward.
The estimate, covering spending through August 1, comes as the Trump administration seeks a way to end the conflict and reopen the strategically important Strait of Hormuz, Reuters reported.
According to the CBO, the war is expected to add 0.5 percentage points to US inflation during the first three months of 2027.
The huge expenditure has put pressure on US weapons stockpiles and contributed to higher energy prices, while raising concerns about Washington’s ability to respond to other potential conflicts. The spending is also adding pressure to the federal budget.
At a Senate hearing on July 21, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said the war had cost about $37.5 billion up to that point, broadly in line with the CBO’s estimate.
The CBO said most of the spending resulted from the rapid depletion of munitions. It estimated that rebuilding US weapons stockpiles could take as long as five years.
Reuters reported in August that the United States had used up “nearly all” of its long-range precision-strike missiles in the war.
The CBO also said the US Defence Department had not cooperated with congressional financial auditors.
White House spokesperson Anna Kelly defended President Donald Trump’s attacks on Iran as a “deliberate course of action”, saying they were aimed at preventing Tehran from harming US military and civilian personnel.
“The US military has more than enough weapons, ammunition and stockpiles to accomplish the strategic and other objectives of the commander-in-chief,” Kelly said in a statement.
Pentagon chief spokesperson Sean Parnell disputed the CBO’s findings on weapons shortages.
“We have everything we need to strike anywhere, anytime at the president’s direction,” Parnell said.
The CBO conducted the analysis at the request of Pennsylvania Democrat Brendan Boyle, the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee.
In a statement, Boyle said Trump’s war in Iran had already killed 18 US service members and wounded more than 750 others, while costing American taxpayers tens of billions of dollars.
The CBO estimate does not include the cost of damage from recent attacks on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz and US military facilities across West Asia. It also excludes the additional costs associated with borrowing to finance the war, which could add several billion dollars to the overall bill.
