Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, under questioning from lawmakers, said on Tuesday that the Defense Department’s latest estimate of the cost of the Iran war was $37.5 billion.
Mr. Hegseth gave the estimate during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing.
The figure is about a $12 billion increase over the $25 billion estimate he gave in late April, just before President Trump negotiated a temporary cease-fire with Iran.
Mr. Hegseth and the Trump administration are requesting as much as $70 billion in emergency military spending to cover the costs of the Iran war and pay for new weapons and personnel.
The Pentagon is asking for $46 billion to expand production lines and accelerate delivery of high-demand munitions, like precision bombs, hypersonic missiles and counter-drone systems.
“This is a new request based on new realities of a world we face, stepping up to meet that moment,” Mr. Hegseth said.
Senate Democrats and some Republicans expressed doubts about the need for billions of war funding in addition to the $1.5 trillion the Pentagon was asking for in the upcoming defense budget.
“This administration has tried to sell this as an emergency request, but it may be better understood as an attempt to skirt the normal appropriations process,” said Senator Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee.
“The problem is not a lack of money, but poor planning,” she said. “So I’ll be blunt. The truth is, your request does not make a lot of sense.”
Mr. Hegseth blamed the Biden administration for the size of the Pentagon’s emergency funding request.
“This kind of spending is needed because of the gross negligence and neglect of the Biden administration inside our department,” Mr. Hegseth said. He spoke of the need to modernize the military as war was changing rapidly with the advent of cheap and plentiful drones.
Typically, the Pentagon modernization efforts are supposed to be paid for through the regular budget, rather than emergency supplemental requests of the sort Mr. Hegseth was asking for on Tuesday.
On July 8, President Trump declared that the cease-fire was over, and hostilities have resumed. Late last week an Iranian attack on a base in Jordan killed two U.S. soldiers and left another soldier missing, but remains found at the scene are believed to be those of the missing soldier.
At least 50 people in Iran have been killed in U.S. strikes since the truce ended, according to the Iranian authorities.
Democrats keep returning to the fact that the Pentagon received roughly $150 billion in additional funding through the so-called Big Beautiful Bill, the Republicans’ landmark tax-and-spending-cuts legislation, and asking the Pentagon why additional money is needed. Hegseth and Caine have replied that much of that funding was already eamarked for other programs not related to the war in Iran.
Senator John Kennedy, Republican of Louisiana, became visibly frustrated with General Caine and Hegseth during his questioning about what Iran might do if the U.S. ceased combat operations against them. Asking the defense secretary if American forces could destroy reported nuclear facilities in an underground complex known as Pickaxe Mountain, Hegseth demurred, saying “a lot of our capabilities are classified. But if anybody in the world can reach anything on this, on God’s green earth, it’s the United States military.”
During Operation Midnight Hammer in 2025, B-2 stealth bombers were used to drop the most capable penetrator bombs known in the U.S. arsenal that likely did not destroy the underground nuclear facilities they attacked. The only known option that is better able to destroy underground targets is a nuclear weapon.
- Credits: The New York Times
- Author: Greg Jaffe
- Photo: Haiyun Jiang
