Four days into the war, US Central Command said that the US had struck 2,000 targets using more than 2,000 munitions.
The U.S. dropped nearly $6 billion worth of munitions on Iran in just the first two days of the U.S.-Israeli assault, officials say, giving a sense of the staggering scope of the carpet bombing campaign as the Trump administration sweeps aside affordability crises at home.
Three U.S. officials told The Washington Post that the U.S. dropped $5.6 billion in the first two days of its bombardments.
This represents hundreds of “precision” weapons like Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptor missiles and Tomahawk cruise missiles that the U.S. has fired since February 28. Last Tuesday, four days into the war, U.S. Central Command head Brad Cooper said that the U.S. had struck 2,000 targets using more than 2,000 munitions.
The Pentagon has signalled that it may soon shift toward the use of non-precision bombs like 2,000-pound bombs, which may cost less and are largely barred from use in civilian areas under international law.
The destruction has been immense. The first days saw a deluge of strikes, including a likely U.S. attack on an elementary school in Minab, Iran, that killed 175 people, most of them children aged between 7 and 12. The Iranian Red Crescent Society reported this week that the U.S.-Israeli assault has damaged 10,000 civilian structures, including residential buildings, schools, and nearly three dozen health facilities. Human rights group HRANA reports that at least 1,245 civilians have been killed.
Thick, black clouds have loomed over the capital of Tehran this week after U.S.-Israeli strikes targeted oil depots in the city, sending columns of flame and smoke high into the sky. The Red Crescent has warned the 10 million residents of the city to avoid leaving their homes as the blackened rainfall itself could cause harm.
The exact cost of the U.S.’s assault is unclear, as lawmakers have said that the Pentagon has not responded to questions from Congress about the cost. Top U.S. officials, including President Donald Trump, have claimed that the U.S. can fight the war indefinitely, and there is seemingly no end in sight to the war.
However, the $5.6 billion figure over just two days is far higher than any other estimate put out so far, especially when other operational costs are taken into account. Further adding to costs, the Trump administration has only promised to escalate the campaign. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday that it would be “our most intense day of strikes inside Iran” yet.
The Atlantic’s Nancy Youssef reported last week, citing a congressional official, that the war is costing $1 billion a day. The New York Times, citing Pentagon officials in a briefing to Congress, reported that the war cost $6 billion in its first week. The Center for American Progress found in an analysis that the war, including costs of actions like the repositioning of forces and the losses of the F-15 fighter jets in friendly fire, cost over $5 billion as of March 2, four days into the war.
The Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) estimated last week that just the costs for weapons systems backing naval and aircraft deployments, as well as an increase in support costs for the heightened combat operations, amounted to $60 million a day — not counting things like munitions, the buildup before the war, troop deployments outside of those needed for naval and aircraft, or the costs of the assets themselves.
IPS’s National Priorities Project pointed out last week that the estimate of $1 billion per day could cover the cost of Medicaid for all 16 million people expected to lose coverage due to the Republican cuts last year, as well as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits for all 41 million Americans who use them.
Other costs are also building up. The Post reports that the Pentagon is moving parts of a THAAD system, a Lockheed Martin weapons system worth between $1 billion and $1.8 billion, from South Korea to the Middle East.
The White House is expected to submit a request for supplemental funding for the war in coming days, with Politico reporting that officials will ask Congress to grant the Pentagon an additional $50 billion.
The amount of spending is staggering, especially considering that initial polling has found it is the most unpopular of any U.S. military intervention in its starting days — and considering that the affordability crisis in the U.S. worsens by the day as billionaires continue sapping wealth from the working class, who, however involuntarily, pay their taxes into fueling more war.The U.S. is also funding Israel’s military actions amid record unfavorability for the state. Israel is burning through its munitions in its attacks, dropping 4,000 bombs on Iran in the first four days of the war. Last Friday, the State Department bypassed Congress to send $151.8 million worth of military support to Israel, including 12,000 1,000-pound bombs, citing an “emergency” in the Middle East.
If I had to guess, total expenditure is well over $10 billion by now.
This is incorrect for an air campaign like this. Almost all, if not all, weapons are precision guided now, and have been for a while. Strategic bombing has changed since WW2 and Vietnam, every single munition now has a very precise aim point. These 2000lb MK-84 or BLU-109 (Bomb Live Unit) bombs mentioned get fitted with a JDAM (Joint Direct Attack Munition) guidance kit, and become GBU-31 (Guided Bomb Unit) JDAMs.
There is no law barring a specific weapon type from a specific area. Military commanders may choose to use smaller munitions such as 500lb GBU-38 JDAMs or 250lb GBU-39 SDBs (Small Diameter Bombs) to reduce collateral damage to comply with conventions and laws on that, but I don't think there are any laws that outlaw specific munitions types in populated areas.
The cost reduction is not because they lack precision guidance, it's because these munitions are called "stand-in" munitions, with a short range, and dropped by an aircraft close to the target. A JDAM is an unpowered gravity bomb with a cost of $20K-40K, with either GPS guidance, or a combination of GPS and laser guidance to hit moving targets (LJDAM, you can guess what the L stands for), with a range of up to 17 miles. For an example of a standoff weapon, an AGM-158 JASSM-ER cruise missile is a sophisticated stealth cruise missile, with an engine, wings, flight computer, GPS guidance and Imaging Infrared, a two way datalink on some models to retarget in flight, a range over 575 miles, think of it as an unmanned mini one use stealth plane that costs between $1-$1.6 million per missile to deliver a 1000lb tandem charge warhead. The above explains the massive cost difference.
At the beginning of an air campaign, stand off munitions fired from non stealth aircraft, and stand in munitions dropped by stealh aircraft, are used while the integrated air defence network of whoever is being bombed is still intact. Once air defence systems are sufficiently suppressed and/or destroyed, non stealth aircraft start using stsnd in munitions as they can get close enough to the target without being shot down, and stealth aircraft can carry external munitions to increase their payload if possible, decreasing cost and increasing the amount of bombs dropped. That is what is meant by the shift towards stand in munitions and reducing cost.
Either they got the cost further down or they are sending unguided bombs or the math doesn't work out
Those are being sent without the JDAM guidance kit. The 12K is just the bomb. Israel will use existing inventory of JDAM guidance kits to turn them into GBU-32 JDAMs, buy more JDAM guidance kits separately, and/or use their own domestic built SPICE 1000 guidance kits.