U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on July 21 before the Senate Budget Committee that the cost of the U.S. war on Iran amounted to $37.5 billion since February 28, including some expected expenses until September 30.

However, U.S. media, including NBC News, estimated the actual cost of this war at between $80 and $100 billion, given the continuation of military operations after the collapse of ceasefire agreements, as reported by the French newspaper Le Figaro.

Image taken from a video captured on July 22, 2026, showing U.S. military strikes against Iran (AFP)

Spain's total defense spending

According to the figures presented by Hegseth, the announced cost represents about 4.2 percent of the U.S. Department of Defense (Pentagon) budget for 2026, which is $901 billion, and drops to 3.9 percent if additional appropriations previously approved by Congress are added.

The defense secretary and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff requested additional funding of $67 billion to continue operations in the Middle East, but Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen objected, noting that the department has not yet spent half of the previous additional appropriations and that it could redirect available funds instead of requesting new allocations.

The cost of the current war is roughly equivalent to Spain's total defense spending for a full year, and it exceeds the annual military budgets of 24 out of 30 NATO member states, excluding the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Poland, Britain, and Italy.

A U.S. warplane prepares to land on the deck of the U.S. aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush on June 29, 2026 (AFP)

Higher spending rate than Iraq and Afghanistan

According to estimates based on the number of U.S. taxpayers, the cost of the war has reached about $173 per taxpayer so far.

Comparisons indicate that the spending rate in the war on Iran could reach about $90 billion annually if it continues at the current pace, exceeding the average annual spending in the Iraq war of $79.1 billion and the Afghanistan war, which averaged $42.1 billion per year.

In contrast, the cost of the U.S. intervention in Libya in 2011 did not exceed about $1 billion, making the war on Iran far more expensive, despite being limited so far to airstrikes and no deployment of ground troops.

It is also roughly equivalent to what the United States spent on supporting Ukraine against Russia in 2023 ($39.2 billion) and 2024 ($30.5 billion).

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