The first 100 hours of the US-Israeli war on Iran are estimated to have cost Washington $3.7 billion, or $891.4 million a day, with bills set to climb as the conflict shows no sign of abating.
A small portion of the cost incurred was already budgeted for but the majority of the war expense, about $3.5 billion, was not, Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said.
Operational costs for the 100 hours amounted to about $196 million, for which $178 million had been earmarked, while munitions replacement hit about $3.1 billion – none of which was budgeted.
Costs to replace combat losses and repair infrastructure damage were estimated at $350 million, also unbudgeted, said the CSIS report.
“The unbudgeted costs will likely require additional Department of Defence (DOD) funding, either through a supplemental appropriation or another reconciliation bill,” Mark Cancian, senior adviser, and Chris Park, research associate at the CSIS, wrote in the report.
“The shift of US forces to less expensive munitions and the steep decline of Iranian drone and missile launches will drive costs down. However, future costs will depend mostly on the intensity of operations and the effectiveness of Iranian retaliation.”
The estimate does not include costs incurred by Israel, which launched its military campaign, alongside the US, against Iran on February 28, hitting targets across the length and breadth of the country.
In retaliation, Tehran has fired drones and missiles at Arab nations across the Middle East, intended to hit US interests and Washington's allies in the region.
The relentless bombing by US and Israel, which also killed Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has triggered one of the worst conflicts in the Middle East, leaving global financial markets in a state of flux.
American forces have expended more than 2,000 munitions of various types in the first 100 hours of the campaign, although US Central Command has provided few specifics on the arms used. The CSIS estimates were based partly on past US air campaigns as a guide.
The number of munitions expended exceeds the number of targets struck because some will miss or prove ineffective.
In the first month of the Iraq war in 2003, the US used about 1.5 munitions for each target, with 68 per cent classed as guided munitions. When Nato coalition forces bombed Libya entirely with precision munitions, the expenditure rate declined slightly to 1.3 per target.
CSIS researchers said US forces are set “exclusively using guided munitions in Operation Epic Fury” in Iran.
Although the US administration has hinted at a surge in the bombing campaign, without describing the scale, the cost of munitions alone looks set to decrease, with US strike operations expected to switch to cheaper weapons.
The aggregate cost of air-defence interceptors is estimated at $1.7 billion in the first 100 hours, with Iran launching 500 ballistic missiles and 2,000 drones by March 4.
However, coalition efforts contributed substantially to shooting down Iranian drones and missiles, with Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and the UAE collectively reporting intercepting 500 cruise and ballistic missiles and 1,300 drones by March 3.
“It does show that these local allies and partners are carrying much of the air defence effort,” the CSIS said.
