Sent. Angus King (I-Me.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has taken issue with the $25 billion Pentagon estimate for the cost of the Iran war. He told CNN on Thursday that he’s heard estimates that the conflict has cost the U.S. around $50 billion. The Pentagon’s acting chief financial officer, Jules Hurst III, estimated the war had cost the U.S. $25 billion so far during a Wednesday meeting with the House Armed Services Committee. “I believe the $50 billion estimate is more accurate. That’s the one that I’ve been hearing until yesterday,” King said.
King noted that this higher estimate would peg the war’s cost around “a billion dollars a day” as the conflict has passed 60 days. “There’s a tremendous amount of repair necessary at American facilities throughout the Middle East that were damaged by Iran, not to mention the replenishment of the massive amount of ordinance that’s been expended in the war and also the deployment of thousands of troops and ships and airplanes and all of the military assets that have been deployed to the region, so it’s a big number,” the senator told the news outlet.
King said he does not have an “exact number” for the war’s cost and said he will seek further information about the Pentagon’s estimate. “I’m going to try to make some inquiry into what they based their estimate on, because $25 billion is considerably below all the other estimates I’ve been seeing for the past two months,” the senator said.
