Operation Epic Fury in Iran has cost American taxpayers roughly $25 billion so far, the Pentagon’s chief financial officer revealed on Wednesday.
Acting comptroller Jules Hurst III, testifying before the House Armed Services Committee, said that the bulk of the figure has been devoted to ordnance.
“Approximately, at this day, we are spending about $25 billion on Operation Epic Fury, most of that is in munitions,” Hurst told lawmakers, adding that some of the costs also included operations, maintenance and equipment replacement.
“We will formulate a supplemental [bill] through the White House that will come to Congress once we have a full assessment of the cost of the conflict,” he noted.
Wednesday marked the first time that President Donald Trump’s administration has publicly disclosed the war’s financial toll.
Senior Pentagon officials appeared on Capitol Hill for what had been scheduled as a review of the Department of Defense’s $1.5 trillion budget proposal for fiscal 2027, only for the proceedings to be subsumed by the war in Iran, which began with a joint U.S.-Israeli attack on Feb. 28.
Thirteen American service members have been killed in the operation, with 400 others wounded, according to Pentagon data.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in a contentious exchange with Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-Calif., insisted that the war’s expenditure is justified to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
“The question that I would ask this committee is, ‘What is it worth to ensure that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon, considering the radical ambitions of that regime?’” Hegseth said.
After eight weeks of fighting, diplomacy between Washington and Tehran has failed to yield a definitive peace deal. Trump, in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday, warned that Iran “better get smart soon” as negotiations remain stalled.
“Iran can’t get their act together,” the president wrote. “They don’t know how to sign a nonnuclear deal. They better get smart soon!”
Trump’s message was accompanied by a manipulated image of him clutching a weapon while explosions took place on a mountainous landscape in the background.
Tanya Noury is a reporter for Military Times and Defense News, with coverage focusing on the White House and Pentagon.
