War on Iran resulted in munitions shortfall for US, confirms Pentagon report

The Pentagon has disclosed that its war against Iran led to shortages in strategic munitions supplies and highlighted industrial bottlenecks for resupplying weapons, according to the inaugural Inspector General's report on the US-Israeli conflict. The report, published on Monday, offers a comprehensive examination of the operation's costs, destruction, and repercussions on American weaponry supplies, validating several worries that news organizations have been reporting for months.

The campaign involved over 50,000 U.S. personnel, who executed thousands of combat missions and expended $22.3 billion in munitions, according to the report. The total direct cost of the war amounted to approximately $33.4 billion, with $22.3 billion allocated to munitions, $3.7 billion to equipment losses, and $7.4 billion to miscellaneous expenses.

However, the estimate does not cover the cost of repairing damaged facilities, replacing aircraft, or replenishing crucial weapons stocks, which explains the discrepancies in Pentagon cost estimates. Earlier, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had stated that the war cost the Pentagon $37.5 billion, while NBC News reported in July that U.S. officials estimated the total cost to range between $80 billion and $100 billion.

Nonetheless, the Inspector General's report confirms one of the most closely monitored concerns: the impact of the operation on U.S. munitions inventories. The study found that the conflict resulted in strategic inventory shortages and revealed bottlenecks in the industrial base responsible for munitions resupply. This aligns with earlier reports from outlets such as The Washington Post, which in March detailed that the U.S. military had launched over 850 Tomahawk cruise missiles in the first four weeks of the conflict, raising concerns among some Pentagon officials about the rapid depletion of precision weapons.

Although the White House and Pentagon maintained that the United States had sufficient munitions stock to complete the operation at that time, by late April, Pentagon officials estimated the cost of the first two months of the operation at around $25 billion, primarily for munitions. Independent analysts questioned whether this figure fully represented the war's cost, considering equipment losses, base damage, and other expenditures.

The report also documented extensive physical damage caused by Iranian attacks, including the destruction or damage of hundreds of buildings and infrastructure at U.S. bases in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman, and Jordan. Dozens of American aircraft and drones were either destroyed or damaged.

The Pentagon report also confirmed that Iran targeted the U.S. Navy's primary logistics hub in Bahrain with drones and ballistic missiles, and at least 30 large U.S. drones were destroyed during the assessment period.

Damage extended to American diplomatic facilities, with an estimated $184 million in physical damage to properties in Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The State Department separately reported $113 million in overall costs related to the conflict, including nearly $80 million for contingency planning and evacuations. Over 20,000 U.S. military and diplomatic personnel were also displaced during the conflict.