The United States military spent a staggering $11.3 billion in just the first six days of its war against Iran — a jaw-dropping figure revealed in a closed-door briefing delivered by Pentagon officials to senators on Capitol Hill on Tuesday March 11, 2026, as the conflict codenamed Operation Epic Fury entered its twelfth day with no end in sight and Iran dramatically escalating its campaign by attacking Dubai International Airport — the busiest airport in the world — and targeting commercial ships across the Persian Gulf.
The Pentagon provided the $11.3 billion estimate to the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defence during a classified briefing, according to three sources familiar with the proceedings. The figure works out to nearly $1 billion per day — and that is before accounting for additional costs. Senator Chris Coons, a Democrat from Delaware, told reporters after the briefing that he believed the true total was even higher. "I expect that the current total operating number is significantly above that," Coons said. "If all you're looking at is the replacement cost for the munitions used, it's already well beyond $10 billion."
The Pentagon declined to comment directly on the classified briefing but confirmed through a spokesperson: "Regarding the cost of Operation Epic Fury, we won't know the cost until the mission is complete."
The story was confirmed and reported by The Associated Press, NBC News, The Hill, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, The Daily Beast, The Boston Globe, and Military News, all citing sources familiar with the Pentagon's classified briefing on Capitol Hill, published on March 11-12, 2026.
Breaking Down The $11.3 Billion — Where The Money Went
The breakdown of the $11.3 billion reveals just how extraordinarily expensive modern warfare has become — and raises profound questions about how long the United States can sustain this level of military spending.
In just the first weekend of the war — the first two days of Operation Epic Fury — the Pentagon spent $5.6 billion on advanced munitions alone, including Tomahawk cruise missiles that were fired in enormous quantities at Iranian military infrastructure, nuclear facilities, missile factories, drone plants and command centres. That single weekend of missile fire cost more than Nigeria's entire federal budget for most government ministries.
The $5 billion munitions figure for the first weekend alone helps explain Senator Coons' insistence that the true total is well above $11.3 billion — because that figure does not include the preparation of military hardware and personnel before the first strikes, the ongoing cost of flying sorties over Iran every day, the cost of deploying additional aircraft carrier groups to the region, or the cost of defending US bases in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia from Iranian retaliatory drone and missile strikes.
Seven US service members have died in the war, while 140 have been wounded. The dignified transfer of Army Reserve Sergeant Declan Coady — killed in a drone strike on a command centre in Kuwait — was held at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware last week.
Trump vs Hegseth — 'Very Complete' vs 'This Is Just The Beginning'
Even as the $11.3 billion war bill was being revealed on Capitol Hill, the Trump administration was sending deeply confusing and contradictory signals about when — and whether — the war would end.
During a phone interview with CBS News on Monday, President Trump declared the war "very complete, pretty much." But his own Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, in a CBS 60 Minutes interview taped just days earlier, said the exact opposite: "This is only just the beginning."
A reporter pressed Trump on the contradiction directly at a news conference on Tuesday: "You said the war is 'very complete,' but your defence secretary says 'this is just the beginning.' So which is it?" Trump's response was characteristically puzzling: "You could say both. It's the beginning of building a new country... We could call it a tremendous success right now — or we could go further, and we're going to go further."
The confusion about the war's objectives — and its endgame — is now a major political problem for the Trump administration on Capitol Hill, where both Republican and Democratic senators are asking increasingly sharp questions about what America is trying to achieve and how much more it will cost. Senate Armed Services Committee Republican Chairman Roger Wicker confirmed Wednesday that he was not expecting a supplemental funding request from the White House this month.
Iran Attacks Dubai Airport — The World's Busiest International Airport
As the Pentagon's war bill dominated headlines in Washington, Iran dramatically escalated its campaign on Wednesday by targeting Dubai International Airport — the busiest international airport in the world, processing over 90 million passengers annually and serving as the primary air hub connecting Africa, South Asia and the Middle East to the rest of the globe.
Iran also attacked commercial ships across the Persian Gulf on Wednesday, continuing its campaign of economic disruption aimed at generating enough global pain — through rising oil prices, disrupted trade routes, and now threats to international aviation — to pressure the United States and Israel to end the war. Iran's response to the US-Israeli bombardment has upended global trade routes, choked fuel and fertiliser supplies coming out of the Gulf, and is now threatening air traffic through one of the world's most heavily travelled regions.
The attack on Dubai Airport is a direct threat to the United Arab Emirates — a country that has taken enormous economic and diplomatic risks by maintaining its neutrality in the conflict. The UAE's six people who died in the early days of the war were already a sign that Iran was willing to strike Gulf states not directly involved in the fighting. The Dubai Airport attack takes that escalation to a completely new level.
Iran's New Supreme Leader — Wounded And In Hiding
Perhaps the most extraordinary intelligence revelation of Wednesday came from an Israeli intelligence assessment that found Iran's new Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei — who succeeded his father Ali Khamenei after the elder Khamenei was killed in an Israeli airstrike on the first day of the war — was wounded on the very first day of the war, when his father was killed.
The 56-year-old Mojtaba Khamenei — whose wife was also killed in the same Israeli strike that killed his father — has not been seen publicly since becoming Supreme Leader. An Israeli intelligence official and a military reservist both confirmed the assessment on condition of anonymity. Yousef Pezeshkian, son of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, wrote on social media that he had heard Mojtaba was wounded but that friends were saying "he is healthy and there is no problem."
Iran's new Supreme Leader leading the country's war response from a wounded and hidden position adds an enormous layer of instability and uncertainty to an already chaotic conflict. Billboards across Tehran now show the image of Mojtaba Khamenei alongside his late father — suggesting the regime is projecting continuity even as questions swirl about the new leader's health and his actual capacity to govern.
Lebanon Death Toll Surges To 634 — 91 Children Dead
Beyond Iran itself, the war has extracted a devastating civilian toll in Lebanon — where Hezbollah's decision to join Iran's retaliatory strikes against Israel has brought the full force of the Israeli military down on Lebanese soil once again.
The Lebanon death toll has surged to 634 people killed by Israeli fire since fighting broke out — up dramatically from 570 reported just a day earlier. Ninety-one children — nearly one in seven of the dead — were among the victims. At least 47 women had been killed. More than 1,500 people have been wounded and over 800,000 people displaced, mostly from southern Lebanon and Beirut's southern suburbs.
Twenty-nine NATO nations signed a joint statement condemning Hezbollah's decision to join the Iranian attacks against Israel — but also urging Israel to abstain from attacks on civilian infrastructure and heavily populated areas. The US, Russia and China did not sign the statement.
The School Strike Question — "The Kids Are Still Dead"
One of the most politically explosive domestic developments in the US on Wednesday was the confirmation by Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana that all indications point to the United States being responsible for a strike near a school in Iran that killed more than 165 people — the majority of them children.
The school was located next to a Revolutionary Guard base and close to barracks for an Iranian naval unit — a proximity that Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina argued gave Iran responsibility for the civilian casualties. But Senator Kennedy was blunt about the human reality: "This was a terrible thing that happened. And it looks like it's our missiles. The kids are still dead."
The school strike controversy — combined with the $11.3 billion war bill and the contradictory statements from Trump and Hegseth — is beginning to create serious bipartisan pressure in the US Congress against the open-ended prosecution of the war.
Wetin $11.3 Billion In Six Days Mean for Nigeria
For Nigerians who want to understand the true scale of what America is spending on this war — let us put $11.3 billion in six days into Nigerian terms.
Nigeria's entire 2026 federal budget is approximately ₦49.7 trillion — roughly $32 billion at current exchange rates. The United States spent more than one-third of Nigeria's entire annual federal budget in just six days of warfare. On a single weekend of Tomahawk missile strikes alone — $5.6 billion — America spent more than Nigeria's entire education budget, health budget and infrastructure budget combined.
And yet despite this extraordinary expenditure, Iran is still firing. Ships are still being attacked. Dubai Airport has just been targeted. The new Supreme Leader is wounded and in hiding. And Trump himself cannot decide whether the war is "very complete" or "just the beginning."
The most powerful military in the history of the world don spend $11.3 billion in six days — and the war is still going. That na the reality of this conflict. And for Nigeria — caught between rising oil prices from the war and falling global growth from its cost — the consequences go continue to be felt at every filling station, every market, and every family table across this country. 🇳🇬💰⚠️🌍
Source: This report is based on statements confirmed and reported by The Associated Press, NBC News, The Hill, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, The Daily Beast, The Boston Globe, and Military News, all citing sources familiar with the Pentagon's classified briefing to the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defence, published on March 11-12, 2026.