US defence chief Hegseth puts Iran war cost at $37.5bn so far

Latest cost comes as Hegseth and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Caine ask for $1.5 trillion budget, including $70bn for Iran war.United States Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has put the latest official price tag on the Iran" class="entity-link entity-event" data-entity-id="38678" data-entity-type="event">US-Israel war on Iran at $37.5bn.Hegseth confirmed the figure during a hearing before the Senate appropriations committee on Tuesday, in which he and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine were questioned about their request for a $1.5 trillion US defence budget, including nearly $70bn for the war with Iran.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Iran war: Look beyond stocks to understand state of economy, experts saylist 2 of 3Israel has ‘no interest’ in joining US war on Iran, says Smotrichlist 3 of 3Trump vows to help Lebanon but offers no timeline for Israeli withdrawalend of listStill, the number is significantly lower than other estimates, especially those that include knock-on expenses for US consumers. For instance, Moody’s Analytics has estimated the domestic cost of the war to be up to $150bn, accounting for factors such as higher US energy prices.“The estimate we have as of today is $37.5bn,” Hegseth said upon questioning from Democratic Senator Dick Durbin.Hegseth added that the price includes some operations and maintenance costs extending through the end of September, but did not provide specifics.The latest quote is about $8bn higher than the previous figure released by the administration of President Donald Trump of $29bn in May.Hegseth appeared before the committee as fighting between the US and Iran continued to rage, after a memorandum of understanding (MoU) that had seen a halt in attacks since June 17 collapsed last week.On Monday, ahead of the 10th consecutive night of US strikes, Trump said Iran would “pay” after two more US soldiers were killed over the weekend.Over the last week, Trump has threatened to target energy plants and bridges in Iran; send ground forces to seize Iran’s Kharg Island; and bomb a deep-underground nuclear-linked site known as Pickaxe Mountain.