Hegseth tells Senate war on Iran has so far cost $37.5bn at hearing to request more funds | Pete Hegseth
The US-Israeli war against Iran has cost $37.5 billion so far, US defense secretary Pete Hegseth told the Senate on Tuesday, with lawmakers furious over the conflict’s escalating price tag and the deaths of three American soldiers last week.
During an appearance before the Senate appropriations committee, Hegseth, whose opening statement was repeatedly interrupted by protesters, gave a statement on the cost of the war – updated from previous estimates – and defended the Trump administration’s request for additional funds of about $88 billion, calling it “urgent, necessary.”
Hegseth, alongside Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, argued that the Pentagon was running low on money to continue the war. Of the total request, $67.1 billion was earmarked specifically to cover the costs of Iran’s war effort.
“Without these funds, we face critical shortages,” Hegseth told the Senate panel, warning that it would threaten the defense department’s ability to “pay our service members, quickly replenish equipment and ammunition, and maintain vital operations without interruption.”
This was the first extended public interrogation of the defense minister since the end of the brief ceasefire and the resurgence of fighting. At least two US soldiers were killed in an Iranian attack on Friday, and another died while destroying an Iranian drone in Iraq, bringing the death toll of Americans to 17 since February. Officials confirmed that approximately 100 soldiers were injured in the conflict, although most of the injuries were minor.
Patty Murray, the committee’s Democratic vice chairwoman, asked Hegseth to explain what the war had actually accomplished, accused the administration of changing its rationale from week to week and warned that the conflict risked becoming “another forever war.”
“We hear a different justification for this war every few days,” Murray said in his opening remarks, noting that the justification has moved from preventing “non-existent” threats to regime change, then dismantling Iran’s nuclear program and navy, and now reopening the Strait of Hormuz, which was a “completely open, free” waterway before the war started.
“Here we are five months later,” he continued. “The Strait has been closed. The ceasefire has not been dissolved yet; this war is now getting out of control again.”
Under questioning from lawmakers, Hegseth cast the funding request as the price of deterrence rather than an admission of failure, framing the Pentagon’s overhaul under the U.S. president as a break from what he described as years of slow bureaucracy.
“The best way to create peace is to prepare for war, not to deter it,” Hegseth told the panel, arguing that the department has “built a force so capable that it would be absurd for anyone to challenge it.”
Hegseth said that the $21 billion preparatory part of the request would cover military payments, replacement of equipment used in recent operations, and address fuel shortages, while the $46 billion capability part would increase the production of “solid rocket engines, JDAMs.” [joint direct attack munitions]hypersonic and counter-drone capabilities”.
He warned that without the funds, the department faces “critical deficits” that threaten its ability to pay troops and resupply ammunition, and warned that the failure to provide $1.5 trillion in funding to the Pentagon is “the greatest threat facing our nation.”
Some Democrats, including Chris Coons of Delaware, plan to direct criticism at Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought, who has not testified but has previously told the U.S. Congress that the operating cost of the war is about $30 billion; This figure is believed by experts to be a large undercount.
Hegseth and Caine faced potential threats from their own parties. Committee chairwoman Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, two leading Republicans, crossed the aisle to support war powers resolutions aimed at curbing the president’s authority over the conflict. Collins, who faces a competitive re-election race, has previously expressed frustration that the administration’s war strategy is changing almost daily.
During the hearing, Hegseth was asked how military exercises would be affected if additional funding was not provided.
The defense secretary said current and future training “will have to be cut” if it doesn’t meet the Pentagon’s budget needs immediately.
Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, pressed panelists about the situation in the Strait of Hormuz, asking whether Iran would impose tolls on commercial ships passing through the vital waterway, which carried about one-fifth of global oil and natural gas supplies before the war.
“That’s a hypothetical question,” Caine replied, “and I don’t know the answer to that.”
“Friends, we need clear answers,” Kennedy responded.
Both chambers of Congress passed a war powers resolution urging the president to seek authorization from Congress to continue military operations in Iran. When asked why the administration had not yet received congressional approval for the war, Hegseth responded that his department’s view was that “independent Article II authorities are available to conduct this operation in the defense of the American people.” The defense secretary dodged a question from lawmakers about whether he would use approval of any additional funding “in lieu of express authorization from Congress.”
House representatives separately accused the Pentagon of stonewalling over key numbers: Betty McCollum, the top Democrat on the House defense appropriations panel, said the department missed a deadline to detail war costs and did not disclose how many precision munitions were left after the military burned thousands in Iran.
