US costs of Iran war rise to over $47 billion

The war's impact on global energy costs has weighed on support for Republican candidates ​and hurt President Donald Trump's approval ratings. Trump's Republican Party holds a narrow majority in both chambers of Congress.

The Pentagon's latest estimate was tied to the operational costs of carrying out the war, with a projected cost of more than $29 billion ​to replace expended munitions used in the conflict. More than $6 billion would be needed to replace military equipment ​and so-called "platform losses," which include the loss of aircraft including many drones lost during the war.

Trump launched the Iran war ‌jointly with ⁠Israel in February, predicting that the conflict would last a short time. Trump's initial strategy in the Iran war focused on first using expensive, high-end precision missiles to bomb Iran's defenses so it could later use less expensive munitions, including gravity bombs like the air-launched JDAMs, which are plentiful.

But an April ceasefire gave time for Iran ​to dig out underground storage ​facilities, bringing back online ⁠some Iranian defenses, as well as missiles and drones that had been inaccessible.

Trump has since imposed a naval blockade on Iran to starve it of oil export ​revenue and held out the possibility of restarting combat operations after the midterm elections. ​US officials, ⁠speaking on condition of anonymity, say the Pentagon has been planning to restart heavy fighting if ordered to do so.

The latest Pentagon estimate compares to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's July estimate of $37.5 billion for the cost of the war.

While ⁠the figures ​include a host of operational costs, from flight operations to ​cyber support, the US military's Iran war cost estimates did not clearly account for the massive expense expected to repair damage to US ​bases sustained by Iranian missile and drone attacks.