The war between the United States and Iran is burning nearly a billion dollars a day, and there is still no "calculation" on the rising oil prices and the inflation that is set to increase.

The military spending of the war in Iran is running at a rate close to one billion dollars a day.

This is the estimated cost for the first, intense week of conflict between the United States and Iran. According to calculations from the Pentagon presented behind closed doors on Capitol Hill - and reported by Politico - the initial days of operations have already burned through over 11.3 billion dollars. And that figure only captures a portion of the costs.

The amount covers immediate operational expenditures and replacement of stocks, but excludes the pre-engagement phase and long-term expenses, such as wear and tear on equipment, extraordinary maintenance, and personnel rotation.

It is worth noting that maintaining a single Carrier Strike Group costs more than 6.5 million dollars a day.

The real budget abyss is the massive use of precision munitions. The think tank CSIS has estimated that the first 100 hours of operations alone cost about 3.7 billion dollars. But the most impressive figure, reported to Congress, indicates that in just the first two days, the U.S. military consumed 5.6 billion in advanced weaponry.

This is the economic paradox of high-intensity warfare: to take down Iranian drones or ballistic missiles costing around 100,000 dollars, the United States resorts to interceptors with exorbitant prices. A single shot from the THAAD system incurs an expenditure of about 12.8 million dollars. Although the Air Force prefers, when possible, cheaper guided bombs like the JDAM, the need to saturate the defensive shield protecting bases and allies makes the expenditure unavoidable.

In the face of this financial hemorrhage, the corridors of Washington are buzzing. Although as of today, March 12, 2026, there are no official confirmations, the hypothesis of an imminent request for supplemental funds of at least 50 billion dollars is becoming increasingly concrete. The extra package is expected to finance the crucial "backfill", that is, the replacement of stocks of Patriot, THAAD, and Tomahawk missiles; a challenge that faces not only extremely high costs but also the bottlenecks in the production capacity of the defense industry.

However, the approval from the Congress is anything but a given. The political climate remains tense, marked by the recent rejection in the House of a measure regarding War Powers. As highlighted in a memo from the Center for American Progress, public opinion is lukewarm and there is a strong fear of signing a blank check for a conflict not formally authorized, with the risk of dragging the country into years of structurally increasing spending.

Finally, the shockwave from the conflict is not limited to Defense budgets: rising tensions in the Strait of Hormuz have caused oil prices to spike, triggering a rapid increase in fuel prices in the United States. Economists warn that an extension of hostilities could reignite inflation in the March data and worsen projections for the federal deficit, transferring the costs of the war directly onto the shoulders of families and businesses.