The United States spent more than $11.3 billion in the first six days of the war against Iran, according to an estimate that the Pentagon shared with Congress, The New York Times reported on Thursday. The figure was provided by U.S. Pentagon officials during a closed-door meeting with lawmakers in Washington, according to the newspaper, which cites three sources familiar with the meeting. The figure is still incomplete and is expected to be even higher once the operational costs of the start of the war are taken into account, such as the increase in personnel, ammunition, and resources needed to carry out the first attacks alongside Israel on February 28, the newspaper notes. The independent Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) published an analysis last week calculating that the United States had spent at least $3.7 billion in the first 100 hours of its war against Iran, that is, in the first four days. The new Pentagon estimate points to a much higher level of spending than that estimated by CSIS, which assumed an outlay of about $900 million per day in those first four days, whereas the Department of War figure implies a cost of nearly $1.9 billion per day in those initial six days. Other defense sources recently cited by The New York Times and The Washington Post estimated that in the first two days of the war, which included attacks on Iran's leadership, $5.6 billion had been spent on munitions alone. In that first round of bombings, weapons such as the precision-guided AGM-154 glide bomb, which can cost more than $836,000, were used, the New York newspaper notes, and since then, the Pentagon has said it now plans to use cheaper munitions. The United States is rapidly depleting its inventory of aerial interceptors and precision-guided weapons to the point of having to start selecting its targets more carefully, The Washington Post reported last week, citing three sources familiar with the matter.
