Although the exact cost of the U.S. bombing campaign on Iran—dubbed Operation Midnight Hammer—hasn’t been officially disclosed, a rough estimate based on what’s known:
- Each GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP)—the 30,000-pound “bunker buster” used in the strikes—costs an estimated $20 million.
- 14 MOPs were reportedly dropped on Iran’s nuclear facilities, which alone could total around $280 million.
- The B-2 Spirit stealth bombers used to deliver them cost about $2.1 billion each, and seven were deployed for the mission. While that’s the procurement cost, the operational cost per flight hour is also steep—estimated at $150,000+.
- Over 125 U.S. aircraft participated in the mission, including F-22s, F-35s, and support aircraft.
- Additionally, 30 Tomahawk missiles were launched from submarines. Each Tomahawk costs about $1.5 million, adding another $45 million to the tally.
So while we don’t have a final invoice, the operation likely cost hundreds of millions of dollars, possibly approaching or exceeding $500 million when factoring in logistics, personnel, and support systems.
The average cost of a meal for a family of four in the U.S. is roughly $12–$15, $500,000,000 ÷ $13.50 ≈ 37,037,037 meals. That’s over 37 million meals—enough to feed a family of four three meals a day for more than 8,200 years.