Iran war's cost to US taxpayers reaches estimated $47.1 billion, Pentagon says, days before midterms

The munitions bill is driven by interceptors such as the Patriot and THAAD missiles, which have been used heavily, and a single Patriot interceptor costs millions of dollars. By service, the Air Force has spent the most, at 7.6 billion dollars, followed by the Army at more than 2 billion dollars. The Navy's figure was 1.45 billion dollars, down from 2.2 billion dollars in early September, and neither the Navy nor Central Command explained the fall.

What the estimate leaves out

The estimate does not include the damage to American bases in the Middle East. A Pentagon inspector general report last month found that Iranian strikes damaged or destroyed hundreds of buildings and structures in eight countries. The 47.1 billion dollars is therefore an official but partial measure of the cost of the war.

The Trump administration is pressing Congress to approve a military budget of 1.5 trillion dollars, and the White House wants lawmakers to approve a 95 billion dollar package to help to pay for the Iran war and other priorities. Democratic legislation to end the war has failed in the Republican-controlled Congress.

The Pentagon counts 21 US service members killed and 865 wounded. Eighteen of the deaths resulted from Iranian strikes, crashes of combat aircraft or the disposal of Iranian drones, and the rest were from medical events or unrelated causes. A third aircraft carrier and thousands of additional troops are heading to the region, and some US embassies have cut their staffing after intelligence that Iran is targeting American personnel.

The war is unpopular, and analysts say that its costs and the rise in energy prices linked to it could hurt Republicans in next Tuesday's midterm elections, which will decide who controls Congress for the last two years of President Donald Trump's term. A recent poll found that most voters want Congress to give priority to ending the conflict. Trump has said that new strikes on Iran are an option after the midterms, and he has repeatedly wondered aloud whether to make a deal with Iran or finish them off. He originally promised a campaign that would last only a matter of weeks. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said that Trump led the country into the war with no plan, no authority and no exit strategy.

The scale of the costs has grown with the length of the war. In the first six days of the war, the Pentagon estimated the cost at 11.3 billion dollars in a closed-door briefing to Congress, a figure that the 47.1 billion dollars now reported dwarfs. Diplomacy is still being tried alongside the fighting. This week Iran was reported to have conveyed a multi-layered proposal to Washington to try to break a deadlock in peace talks, and crude prices eased on Tuesday as efforts to reduce tension between the two countries continued, although attacks on Saudi Arabia kept supply worries alive.

The costs of the conflict are not confined to the United States. Crude oil prices have risen, with Brent above 115 dollars on Wednesday after an attack on a refinery in Saudi Arabia, and India imports most of its oil. Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea has been disrupted, and 22 Indians, 14 of them seafarers, have been killed in the conflict, according to the Ministry of External Affairs.

The Pentagon's number is a snapshot from mid-October, and the next update will show how much further the cost has risen.