JAKARTA - The United States Department of War (formerly the Department of Defense) or Pentagon on Tuesday revealed that the cost of the war with Iran had reached 29 billion US dollars (Rp508,211,950,000,000), as President Donald Trump faced increasing scrutiny over the conflict and its impact on US military readiness.
The figure, which was revealed during a budget hearing on Capitol Hill, is about $4 billion higher than the department's previous estimate provided two weeks ago.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine, and Pentagon chief financial officer Jules Hurst III were asked about the cost of the war during testimony on the government's request for a $1.5 trillion defense budget for 2027.
"At the time of the testimony, it was 25 billion US dollars," Hurst said, referring to Hegseth's estimate on April 29, launching Al Arabiya from AFP (13/5).
"But the joint staff team and the financial oversight team are constantly reviewing that estimate, and now we think it's closer to 29," he said - citing updates on "repair and replacement costs" and broader operational spending.
The Democratic Party and other critics of the war have questioned the Pentagon's calculations, saying the true cost - including damage inflicted by Iran - could be much higher.
When asked when Congress would receive a more complete report, Defense Secretary Hegseth said the administration would ask for "whatever we think is needed" separately from the Pentagon budget, without giving a deadline.
The testimony came as the fragile US-Iranian ceasefire appeared to be faltering, with President Donald Trump warning on Monday that the truce was in a "critical condition" after rejecting Tehran's latest peace proposal.
The Democrats used the hearing to slam the administration for ballooning war costs and what they described as a lack of transparency about U.S. goals.
"The question that must be answered in the end is: what have we achieved and what is the cost?" asked Rosa DeLauro, the Democratic Party leader on the House Appropriations Committee.
The hearing marked Hegseth's first appearance on Capitol Hill since the White House officially told Congress that the hostilities launched by the United States and Israel against Iran on February 28 had "ended."
The Democratic Party, which accuses Trump of waging a war without congressional authorization, has repeatedly proposed measures to limit his war powers, but they have always been blocked by the Republicans.
Democratic Senator Mark Kelly warned over the weekend that supplies of Tomahawk missiles, Patriot interceptors and other advanced weapons had been drastically reduced and could take years to replenish.
However, Defense Minister Hegseth dismissed the concerns as "stupid and unhelpful exaggerations."
Defense Secretary Hegseth and Gen. Caine faced a second round of questions before the Senate panel after their appearances before the House, and there were anti-war protesters at both hearings.
In the Senate, Democrat Patty Murray said the government's cost estimate seemed "suspiciously low" because it did not take into account damage to US facilities, citing reports that Iran attacked at least 228 buildings or equipment at military sites.
Separately, Virginia Burger, a senior defense policy analyst at the Project on Government Oversight, said the government may have underestimated the true cost of the war by "tens of billions" of dollars.
"The only way to know how much the difference is and what the actual cost the taxpayer has to bear is if the Pentagon provides details of the cost to Congress," he said.
"Without looking at the numbers, we are forced to wonder if the Pentagon is doing mathematical tricks and selectively choosing numbers to make the official cost estimate as low as possible," he said.
Defense Secretary Hegseth declined to provide an estimate of the damage, but argued - as he has repeatedly since the war began - that the cost to Iran of acquiring nuclear weapons would be far greater.
President Trump himself has repeatedly claimed US airstrikes "crushed" Iran's nuclear program last year, although intelligence assessments indicate that Tehran still needs another decade to develop missiles capable of threatening the United States.
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