The Pentagon says the cost of the first week of the war exceeded $11.3 billion

       Officials at the U.S. Department of Defense (the Pentagon) told members of Congress during a classified briefing at the Capitol building on Tuesday that the cost of the war against Iran exceeded $11.3 billion in just the first six days of military operations, according to The New York Times according to three people familiar with the details of the meeting.

However, this estimate does not include many expenses related to the military operation, such as the mobilization of troops and military equipment before the first strikes began, which means that the total cost of the war could be much higher as the Department of Defense continues to tally the expenses that accumulated during the first week of fighting.     

This assessment appears to be the most comprehensive one Congress has received so far, at a time when questions are mounting among lawmakers about the war’s objectives, scope, and likely timeline.

Previous reports had cited Defense Department officials during congressional briefings as saying that the U.S. military used $5.6 billion worth of ammunition during just the first two days of the war

This figure represents a much higher rate of munitions consumption than previously announced; the Center for Strategic and International Studies also estimated that the first 100 hours of military operations cost about $3.7 billion, or roughly $891 million per day.

The first wave of bombing included the use of advanced weapons such as the AGM-154 glide bomb, which costs between $578,000 and $836,000 per unit.

The U.S. Navy had purchased about 3,000 of these bombs nearly two decades ago, and since then, the U.S. military has announced that it will increasingly shift to using less expensive munitions such as Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM), as the cost of the smallest warhead is about $1,000, while the cost of the guidance kit is about $38,000.