Appearing before congressional panel, Defense Secretary Hegseth says US is prepared to escalate or wind down war.

The Pentagon has released a new price tag for the war with Iran, saying it has cost the United States $29bn.

The department’s comptroller, Jules Hurst, revealed the new total during a Senate committee hearing on Tuesday, where Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth was in attendance.

The estimate is an increase from the $25bn Hurst previously reported to members of Congress in late April, when the administration of US President Donald Trump first offered an official price tag for the conflict.

Several experts, however, questioned the Pentagon’s ledger, saying the real cost to US taxpayers is likely to be much higher than the publicly stated estimates.

Hurst attributed the discrepancy between Tuesday’s sum and the earlier estimate to an “updated repair and replacement of equipment” and “also just general operational costs”.

The US and Israel launched the war against Iran on February 28, but since April 8, a ceasefire has generally paused the fighting, barring a handful of flare-ups.

The administration has so far not offered a clear picture of damage sustained at US military installations across the Middle East, nor has it revealed the true extent to which the fighting has affected its munitions stockpile.

Some lawmakers have argued the price tag also fails to take into account the knock-on effects to the US economy, including higher prices for consumers caused, in part, by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

In April, US Representative Ro Khanna claimed the war would cost the US economy about $631bn — or some $5,000 per household — when accounting for increased gas and food prices.

Linda Bilmes, a leading Harvard economist, has predicted that the total cost of the war could amount to $1 trillion.

Munitions concerns

On Tuesday, when asked about concerns over the US’s ability to replenish its weapons supply and maintain its military readiness, Hegseth said the Pentagon was “well aware of all those dynamics”.

“The munitions issue has been foolishly and unhelpfully overstated,” Hegseth told the House Appropriations subcommittee. “We know exactly what we have. We have plenty of what we need.”

An April analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) posited that the war had seen the US use large quantities of its most expensive missiles.

That includes about 45 percent of its stockpile of Precision Strike Missiles and about half of its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptors and Patriot ballistic interceptor missiles.

“Analysis of seven key munitions shows that the United States has enough missiles to continue fighting this war under any plausible scenario,” the report said. “The risk — which will persist for many years — lies in future wars.”

On Tuesday, however, the Pentagon chief gave little indication of the US’s long-term plans for the war.

That comes a day after Trump rejected a new ceasefire proposal from Iran. The president told reporters the ongoing pause in fighting was “on life support” and was “unbelievably weak”.

Hegseth said there were plans to both resume fighting and to de-escalate.

“We have a plan to escalate if necessary,” he said. “We have a plan to retrograde if necessary. We have a plan to shift assets.”

A resumption of fighting?

It remains unclear whether the Trump administration will indeed have the political will to resume fighting amid the protracted standoff over the Strait of Hormuz.

The war — and its economic toll — has proven unpopular in the US and threatens to harm Republicans in the midterm elections in November.

On Tuesday, the US Labor Department reported that its consumer price index had risen 3.8 percent from April 2025, the highest annual increase since 2023. On a monthly basis, April prices rose 0.6 percent from March as prices for gasoline or petrol rose 5.4 percent.

The apparent dilemma for Washington was set to loom large during Trump’s visit to China this week, although US officials have said they hope to make progress on other issues, aside from disagreements over the war in Iran.

Speaking during the hearing, which concerned the Pentagon’s historic $1.5 trillion funding request, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine said responding to China’s growing influence would remain the top priority during the trip.

He said the Pentagon wants “a range and mix of capabilities that create outsized dilemmas for [Chinese President] Xi Jinping and others that are out there, to ensure that we maintain and sustain deterrence”.