• Pentagon report warns of ‘strategic inventory shortfalls’, bottlenecks in munitions resupply
• Iranian strikes damaged several US bases across eight countries
• Four F-15s destroyed, one F-35 damaged and seven KC-135 tankers damaged; up to 30 Reaper drones downed
WASHINGTON: The US war with Iran cost about $33.4 billion in its first four months and put significant pressure on American weapons stocks, with the Pentagon’s inspector general warning of “strategic inventory shortfalls” and bottlenecks in munitions resupply.
More than 50,000 US service members took part in the campaign, flying thousands of combat missions and expending $22.3bn worth of munitions, according to the inspector general’s report released on Monday.
The four-month assessment, covering Feb 28 through June 30, puts the direct cost of the war at about $33.4bn. Of that amount, $22.3bn was spent on munitions, $3.7bn on equipment losses and $7.4bn on other expenditures. The estimate does not include the cost of repairing damaged facilities, replacing aircraft or replenishing critical weapons stocks.
That distinction helps explain why Pentagon estimates of the war’s cost have varied. The report confirms some of the concerns that independent news organisations had reported for months.
The report also identified losses to the American fleet, including four F-15s fighters destroyed, one F-35 fighter damaged, seven KC-135 tanker aircraft damaged and up to 30 MQ-9 Reaper drones destroyed.
It also confirmed that the US Navy’s main logistics hub in the region, located in Bahrain, had been targeted by Iran with drone and ballistic missile strikes.
Hundreds of buildings and structures at US bases in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman, and Jordan have been damaged or destroyed by Iranian strikes during the conflict.
The report does not include those costs in its estimates, saying it is not yet clear if all the bases will be rebuilt, or who will foot the bill.
As of June 30, seven US service members had been killed in action and seven killed in non-hostile events during OEF combat operations, the report said.
An additional 417 service members were wounded in action, it added. In late July, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth told Congress that the war had cost the Defence Department $37.5bn. Separately, NBC News reported in July that US officials and people familiar with internal estimates put the eventual cost at between $80bn and $100bn.
Those higher estimates apparently included costs not captured in the inspector general’s four-month calculation, including repairs, replacement of aircraft and replenishment of weapons.
The inspector general’s report nevertheless confirms one of the most closely watched concerns of the war: the impact of the campaign on US munitions stocks. The report says the conflict “has resulted in strategic inventory shortfalls and revealed industrial base bottlenecks for munitions resupply”.
The finding is significant because independent reporting had raised concerns about rapidly falling stocks well before the inspector general’s assessment was released.
In March, The Washington Post reported that the US military had fired more than 850 Tomahawk cruise missiles in the first four weeks of the conflict, prompting concern among some Pentagon officials about the rapid depletion of precision weapons. The White House and Pentagon, however, said at the time that the United States had sufficient stocks to carry out the operation.
By late April, Pentagon officials were putting the cost of the first two months of the operation at about $25bn, saying that most of the amount was for munitions. Independent analysts questioned whether that figure captured the full cost of the war, given equipment losses, damage to bases and other expenses. The inspector general’s report now provides an official acknowledgement that the campaign imposed significant pressure on weapons inventories.
Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2026
