First 100 hours of Operation Epic Fury cost around $3.7 billion: Here is how much US is spending daily on war with Iran

The US-Iran conflict is into its 10th day on Monday. The conflict, which began with the US and Israel bombing Tehran and killing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s long-time Supreme Leader, continues, with no immediate end in sight.

The US has made significant gains in the conflict, with the elimination of Khamenei and other top leadership of Iran. The intense bombardments have also dealt a major blow to Iran’s arms stockpile and have practically taken the Iranian Navy out of the equation.

But it did not come cheap, and the US is bleeding millions of dollars every additional hour the conflict is dragging on.

$1 billion per day

According to US media reports, the conflict is costing around $ 37.1 every hour. The Atlantic reported that the US is currently spending an estimated $890 million to $1 billion per day on the conflict with Iran.

According to the estimate by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), in the first hundred hours of the conflict, the US spent $3.7 billion, or $891.4 million each day.

The cost includes both budgeted and non-budgeted expenses across three categories - operational costs, munitions replacement, and replacing combat losses and repairing infrastructure damage.

What is US $1 billion on?

The highest daily expense, over $750 million, is spent on replenishing high-end munitions used to pound Iran.

The fixed costs include:

Tomahawk Cruise Missiles, which cost around $3.6 million per unit

Patriot Interceptors, which cost around $4 million per unit

THAAD Missiles, which cost around $12 million per unit

The US has been using these expensive interceptors to intercept Iran’s much cheaper Shahid drones and ballistic missiles.

Air operational cost

According to CSIS, the US’s air operations alone cost $125.2 million in the first 100 hours, and every additional day adds at least $30 million. According to Admiral Brad Cooper, Commander of US Central Command, over 200 fighter aircraft are conducting operations. This includes around 50 stealth aircraft, 110 non-stealth aircraft, and 80 carrier-based fighters.

Cost of three F-15s shot down

On March 2, the US lost three Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jets after they were mistakenly shot down by Kuwaiti air defences in a major friendly fire incident.

While they originally cost $31.1 million in 1998, a single F-15E is estimated to cost around $80 million to $100 million in 2026. The replacement cost for the F-15E is $103 million each, totaling $309 million.

The US’s naval expenses mostly come from sustaining the two carrier strike groups currently in the region, the USS Abraham Lincoln and USS Gerald R. Ford, which costs roughly $15 million daily in basic operations.

US could spent up to $95 billion in Iran

While over $1 billion per day is a huge amount, according to Politico, some congressional Republicans believe the Pentagon is now “spending as much as $2 billion a day on the war.”

According to analysts from the Penn Wharton Budget Model at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, the direct military cost for the US could reach $65 billion to $95 billion if the conflict with Iran persists for several weeks.