LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Two new government reports have the most detailed looks yet at the cost of the U.S. war with Iran. It has caused damages to U.S. bases, shortages in American weapons and a price tag of more than $30 billion.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
For more, we're joined by NPR national security correspondent Greg Myre. Greg, who's responsible for these reports?
GREG MYRE, BYLINE: One of them comes from the Congressional Budget Office and the other from the Pentagon's inspector general. And both of these are independent, nonpartisan agencies. Both reports detail the extensive damage to U.S. bases and military equipment, like the U.S. naval base in Bahrain. And this is something the Pentagon has really not wanted to talk about. The Pentagon inspector general said the Iranian strikes damaged and destroyed, quote, "hundreds of buildings and structures at U.S. bases," and it listed eight countries in the region where this has happened.
Also, around 60 U.S. aircraft have been damaged or destroyed. Now, about half of these are Reaper drones, and they cost at least $30 million apiece, but also around a dozen refueling aircraft and several fighter planes. And, A, we should remember that in past wars, the Pentagon held multiple briefings every week. We might get this kind of information over time, but briefings have been extremely rare under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
MARTÍNEZ: And we've heard a lot of estimates about the cost of the war. Any more concrete figures, though?
MYRE: Yeah. These are giving us more detail, but they tend to be pretty much along the lines of what we've been hearing. The Congressional Budget Office put the cost so far at $38 billion. The Pentagon inspector general came up with $33 billion, and these numbers are just above and below the 37 billion that Hegseth gave back in July. And all three are actually using slightly different cutoff dates, so they do seem to be pretty much in the same ballpark.
Now, they do not count the cost of rebuilding these damaged U.S. bases. The CBO said it tried to get this information, but the Pentagon did not respond. And the Congressional Budget Office says if the war continues at roughly the same pace as the past few months with a large U.S. presence and periodic fighting with Iran, this is going to add an additional two to $3 billion in monthly costs.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, does the Trump administration accept those findings?
MYRE: Yeah. They really haven't said that much since the reports came out. The president did take to Truth Social before they came out, and he said that the U.S. was, quote, "producing more exquisite and elite weapons than at any time in our history." But both these reports noted that the U.S. was using many Patriot interceptor missiles that shoot down Iranian ballistic missiles. The CBO says the military has burned up to two-thirds of the Patriots, and it could take up to five years to replace them. The U.S. still has large stockpiles of many weapons, but the war has put a strain on some important munitions, particularly high-end defensive weapons.
MARTÍNEZ: By the way, Greg, one more thing. I mean, how is the U.S. funding this war?
MYRE: The Trump administration is asking for an additional $67 billion to cover the Iran war and to pay for what it says are other urgent military needs. Now, Congress hasn't acted, and it may not act before the November elections. Inflation remains elevated, and the Congressional Budget Office says the Iran war is one key reason, and it also predicts that inflation will be about a half percentage point higher in the first part of next year than it would be if there was no war.
MARTÍNEZ: All right. That's NPR's Greg Myre. Greg, thanks a lot.
MYRE: Sure thing, A. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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