How much could the war with Iran cost the United States?

Operation Epic Fury, a joint US-Israeli campaign that began on 28 Feb. 2026, has already generated substantial military spending, with costs accumulating from the opening hours of combat.

President Donald Trump described the strikes as a "major combat operation" inside Iran and said the objective was to "ensure that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon". He also said of Iran's military infrastructure: "We're going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground. It will be totally obliterated".

Since the start of the operation, the United States has struck more than 1,250 targets inside Iran, including nuclear-related facilities and naval vessels. Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed during the initial wave of strikes, according to officials familiar with the operation, says Al Jazeera.

Here is a look at the financial impact so far and the potential longer-term costs.

What did the first days cost?

The first 24 hours of Operation Epic Fury cost approximately $779 million, according to estimates cited by officials. That figure includes strike sorties, missile launches and associated operational expenses.

Ahead of the strikes, the United States spent an additional $630 million on military mobilization, including deploying more than a dozen naval vessels and repositioning aircraft across the region.

Operating naval forces adds to the ongoing expense. Maintaining a single carrier strike group such as the USS Gerald R. Ford costs roughly $6.5 million per day, according to defense estimates. Prolonged deployments would multiply that daily cost over time.

The US has also confirmed the loss of three F-15 fighter jets in what was described as a friendly-fire incident over Kuwait, adding to replacement and readiness costs.

Christopher Preble, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center, said precise figures remain uncertain. "The Pentagon has not published that information, and so we can only speculate…, but there's a lot of moving pieces, and we can speculate on the cost of the individual weapons; we can speculate on the cost of the operations, the naval operations".

How does this fit into broader US spending?

The campaign comes amid elevated US defense spending in the Middle East since October 2023.

Since 7 Oct. 2023, the United States has provided approximately $21.7 billion in military assistance to Israel. Regional support operations in Yemen, Iran and across the wider Middle East have cost between $9.65 billion and $12.07 billion over the same period.

Combined, total spending connected to these regional hostilities is estimated at between $31.35 billion and $33.77 billion and continues to rise.

Preble said the United States can financially absorb the costs in the near term. "It is sustainable with respect to the cost. I mean, we have a trillion-dollar defence budget in the US and a request to go to $1.5 trillion, which I find appalling, but which the president is committed to".

What drives the costs?

The campaign employs more than 20 weapons systems across air, sea and land, including B-2 stealth bombers, F-35 Lightning II and F-22 Raptor fighter jets, along with newly deployed LUCAS drones.

Advanced aircraft require significant maintenance and logistical support. Precision-guided munitions and interceptor missiles can cost hundreds of thousands to several million dollars per unit.

Kevin Donegan, a former CENTCOM operations director, said the military focus is on rapidly limiting Iran's ability to respond. "The focus of the United States and Israelis now is to blunt or degrade – as quickly as they can – the offensive capabilities of the Iranians to keep wreaking havoc. You want to stop these attacks, or at least diminish them as much as you can".

Is money the main concern?

Defense analysts say the more pressing issue may be sustainability rather than overall budget size.

The United States is rapidly drawing down inventories of sophisticated interceptor missiles such as Patriot systems and SM-6 interceptors used to defend against ballistic missiles and drones.

Preble said the pace may not be sustainable. "It is reasonable to speculate that the pace of operations right now, in terms of numbers of interceptions, could not continue indefinitely, certainly, and perhaps could not continue for more than several weeks".

He added that replenishing stockpiles takes time. "A Patriot missile or an SM-6… is a very complicated piece of equipment. It's not like they're cranking them out, hundreds or thousands a day. That's not the pace of manufacturing".

What if the conflict widens?

In retaliation, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps declared that the "vital Strait of Hormuz waterway is now 'closed'". A sustained disruption of the strait could prompt additional US deployments to secure shipping lanes, further increasing operational costs.

Any expansion of the conflict would likely require more naval assets, missile defense systems and air operations, adding to daily expenditures and accelerating the use of high-end munitions.

For now, analysts say the United States has the financial capacity to sustain Operation Epic Fury in the short term. The longer-term challenge, they say, lies in managing weapons inventories and balancing commitments across multiple global theaters.