WASHINGTON (AFP) — The Pentagon said Tuesday that the cost for Washington of the war with Iran had climbed to nearly $29 billion, as US President Donald Trump faced mounting scrutiny over the conflict and its impact on military readiness.

The new figure, revealed by the US Defense Department during a budget hearing on Capitol Hill, is about $4 billion higher than the estimate offered by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth two weeks ago.

Hegseth and General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were testifying on a $1.5 trillion budget request for 2027 alongside Pentagon finance chief Jules Hurst III on Tuesday when they were asked for an update on the war’s price tag.

“At the time of testimony… it was $25 billion,” Hurst told lawmakers, referring to Hegseth’s April 29 estimate.

“But the joint staff team and the comptroller team are constantly looking at that estimate, and so now we think it’s closer to 29,” he said — citing updated “repair and replacement of equipment costs” and broader operational expenses.

Pressed on when the US Congress would receive a fuller accounting of the war’s costs, Hegseth said the Trump administration would request “whatever we think we need” separately from the main Pentagon budget, but did not say when that supplemental request would arrive.

The testimony came as a fragile US-Iran ceasefire appeared increasingly shaky, with Trump warning Monday that the truce was on “life support” after rejecting Tehran’s latest peace proposal.

Democrats........

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