I keep hearing “one billion dollars a day”. Is this a billion on top of what gets spent anyway? The guys get paid no matter where they are plus extra for being in a warzone and, as long as there is no fighting, the ships don’t cost more to be in the gulf as to be bobbing around off California.
Yes, the estimated $1B daily cost of the Iran war are additional expenses on top of the Department of Defense’s regular expenses.
And if they’re not shooting at someone, what accounts for the billion? As I said, the ships could be bobbing around anywhere and the guys get paid like normal.
By this point, the mental gymnastics of “Any money for Ukraine is too much, but huge sums on a war with Iran that goes nowhere is good” MAGA-ers isn’t even intellectually entertaining anymore.
There’s hazard pay for those in the line of fire - that can add up. Plus massive amounts of fuel, ammunition, food, supplies, medical care, etc., all greatly in excess of peace time spending.
A patriot missile for air defense costs 4-5 million each. A THAAD missile costs 12-15 million each. We’ve fired thousands of air defense missiles in the war, which alone puts the cost into the tens of billions for missiles alone.
this article is from 4-21, and shows we spent tens of billions on missiles.
Then you have all the costs of all the repairs to the jets flying missions.
30 billion a month sounds realistic.
But didn’t we have those missiles anyway? We expended the resources, but the cost of the missiles isn’t a new expense.
But they will need to be replaced.
Driving my car into a brick wall won’t cost me anything, good to know.
Indeed. Actually, the US is not building them fast enough for replacements to what we use. Weapon stockpiles are dwindling and that is a problem. We’ve exported so much of our manufacturing capabilities what is left in the US is looking insufficient (see: ship building…that is scary by itself).
Making snuff movies for trump’s enjoyment comes at a cost.
No: If it’s your brick wall, you don’t have to buy the bricks to crash into it. The crash will probably have other associated costs, though.
Whether or not you replace the wall is a separate question. If a missile costs $5, and you buy one because you used your old one in a war, that might be a cost of war, but surely that hasn’t been paid yet?
To understand the cost of war these days, you have to first understand that much of our operations are done by private military contractors.
And these companies routinely receive “cost plus” contracts, where they are guaranteed to have their costs, plus a profit margin, paid by the U.S. government.
It’s a huge money grab, and there’s no incentive to rein it in.