Pentagon puts Iran war cost at $25B as Hegseth battles Congress

Operation Epic Fury began on February 28, 2026, when the United States and Israel launched coordinated strikes on Iranian nuclear and military infrastructure. By the time of the April 29 hearing, the conflict had lasted nearly 60 days, with a Pakistan-brokered ceasefire beginning April 8 and approaching its expiration amid mutual accusations of violations. Pentagon casualty data indicated at least 13 U.S. service members killed and more than 380 wounded in action, with Army personnel accounting for the largest share of wounded — 247 of the total.

The Pentagon reported hitting some 13,000 targets in Iran before the ceasefire, and Center for Strategic and International Studies analysis indicated the United States had used roughly half of its stocks of certain critical missiles and munitions in under two months, a rate that defense analysts warned creates a four-year vulnerability window during which Chinese military planning could exploit U.S. stockpile depletion.

The $1.45 trillion FY2027 defense budget request was the formal subject of the hearing, but Hegseth's opening statement reframed the session as a referendum on congressional support for the war. He told lawmakers the biggest threat to the United States was not Iran's armed forces but 'the reckless, feckless and defeatist words of congressional Democrats and some Republicans.' He delivered the prepared attack before a single question was asked, and the statement set the tone for combative exchanges throughout the hearing.

The Pentagon's FY2027 request was finalized months before the February 28 attack on Iran and does not account for war spending. A separate supplemental request of approximately $200 billion — reported by the Washington Post in March 2026 and confirmed by Hegseth at a Pentagon press conference — would require congressional approval and would represent the largest single supplemental appropriation in modern U.S. history.

The hearing produced notable bipartisan criticism of Hegseth's management of senior military leadership. Republican Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) told Hegseth directly: 'You have the constitutional right to do these things, but it doesn't make it right or wise,' referring to the firing of Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George.

Republican Rep. Austin Scott also expressed disagreement with the George dismissal. Republican Rep.

Jen Kiggans raised questions about the firing of former Navy Secretary John Phelan. Hegseth defended the leadership changes as necessary when officials aren't fully aligned with the mission, saying 'I anticipate other officers will be removed also,' including four colonels who had been blocked from promotion. He described two of those officers as Black and two as women, noting none had discipline issues and all had been thoroughly vetted — a framing that drew immediate attention because it appeared to connect the promotion holds to demographics rather than performance.

Democratic Ranking Member Adam Smith (D-WA) used the hearing to press Hegseth on the administration's shifting rationale for the war. Smith noted that Hegseth himself had said Iran's nuclear facilities were 'obliterated' in a 2025 U.S. attack, then asked how an imminent nuclear threat could justify starting the February 2026 war if those facilities were already destroyed. Hegseth responded that Iran had maintained 'nuclear ambition' and a 'conventional shield' that posed a continuing threat despite destroyed capabilities, and that Operation Midnight Hammer was 'very effective.'

Smith responded that the war had 'left us at exactly the same place we were before' and pressed Hegseth for a specific plan showing how kinetic military action translates into an actual improvement in Iran's nuclear situation. Hegseth did not provide a specific timeline or exit strategy during his testimony. Trump had said at the war's outset it would last approximately four to six weeks; by the hearing date it had entered its ninth week.

The War Powers Resolution of 1973 requires the president to notify Congress within 48 hours of committing troops to hostilities and limits unauthorized military operations to 60 days, with a possible 30-day extension for withdrawal. Trump notified Congress on March 2, 2026 — placing the 60-day deadline at approximately May 1. The Senate had voted 52-47 on April 15 to block a resolution that would have required congressional authorization for continued military operations, marking the fourth failed Senate attempt to challenge executive war-making authority.

Legal scholars were divided over whether the clock ran from the February 28 start of hostilities or from the March 2 notification, but either deadline was imminent at the time of the hearing. Military.com reported that nothing in the War Powers Resolution allows a president to continue operations beyond 60 days without congressional authorization. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries announced plans to force another House vote on a war powers resolution to increase pressure on Congress to formally weigh in before the deadline.

The munitions consumption rate revealed at the hearing — roughly half of certain critical stockpiles expended in under two months — raised urgent questions about U.S. industrial capacity to restock for potential future conflicts. Hegseth identified 14 munitions systems requiring accelerated production, including Patriot interceptors, THAAD interceptors, SM-3s, SM-6s, AMRAAMs, JASSMs, and PrSMs. Defense industrial base analysts noted that restocking timelines for some of these systems run three to four years, creating a window during which U.S.

deterrence capacity against China or other adversaries could be measurably diminished. Hegseth framed the $1.45 trillion FY2027 budget request as necessary to increase lethality, strengthen the defense industrial base, and address the munitions-production gap exposed by Operation Epic Fury. The request was the largest in Pentagon history and represented a significant increase from the prior year's allocation of just under $1 trillion. Congress must appropriate the funds before any of the FY2027 request takes effect, and the supplemental war-cost request was a separate and additional appropriation that had not yet been formally submitted to Congress.