In the six days that followed the US and Israel’s joint attack on Iran on 28 February,
$11.3 billion was spent on American taxpayer-funded bombs that hit the country and caused hundreds of deaths,
the Pentagon has told lawmakers.

This figure does not capture the full cost of the conflict,
such as deployment of forces,
and will now be far higher given the ongoing nature of the war.

But even the limited snapshot of the financial cost of the war has underscored the enormous disparity between the amount spent by the US on its military compared with the budgets of agencies tasked to keep Americans’ air clean, help find new cures for cancer and devise new scientific innovations.

The cost of the first week of the Iran war would be more than enough to fully fund the Environmental Protection Agency this year (at $8.8bn),
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ($9.2bn)
or the National Cancer Institute ($7.4bn).

The $11.3bn is also more than the total amount allocated this year for federal scientific research funding, via the National Science Foundation.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/18/us-spending-iran-war-priorities?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other