Up to date Sept. 15, 2026, 12:32 p.m. ET
Iranian strikes broken and destroyed a whole lot of buildings and different constructions at U.S. bases throughout eight international locations within the Center East, in line with a report on the Iran struggle from the Pentagon’s official watchdog.
The struggle has additionally resulted in a shortfall of strategic munitions and revealed “bottlenecks” within the protection business because the U.S. navy sought to resupply the depleted inventory of munitions.
The report, produced by the Protection Division’s inspector common for Congress, was launched on Sept. 14 and covers the beginning of the struggle on Feb. 28 by way of June 30. It gives essentially the most complete official account of the struggle’s price and affect on U.S. navy bases and gear.
The struggle, which President Donald Trump initially estimated would final 4 to 5 weeks, is now in its seventh month and has price the U.S. no less than $33.4 billion as of June 29, in line with the report. The determine doesn’t account for repairs to broken amenities and plenty of specialists imagine the full price of the struggle is considerably greater.
Greater than 50,000 U.S. service members have been deployed in U.S. Central Command’s space of duty to assist the Iran struggle. Because the begin of the battle, 18 have died and greater than 800 had been wounded.
Buildings and amenities at U.S. bases in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman and Jordan had been broken or destroyed by Iranian strikes through the struggle. The report confirmed that Iran focused the U.S. Navy’s predominant logistics hub in Bahrain with drones and ballistic missiles.
The Pentagon didn’t reply to a request for remark concerning the watchdog report.
Final week, appearing Navy Secretary Hung Cao confirmed that Iran “blew the hell out of Bahrain” in reference to the important thing U.S. base. Cao’s feedback confirmed satellite tv for pc imagery and information studies that the U.S. base in Bahrain suffered in depth harm at first of the struggle.
The watchdog report additionally discovered that the struggle in Iran has prompted “strategic stock shortfalls” of essential munitions and revealed resupply bottlenecks.
“To mitigate these constraints,” the Pentagon is “working to streamline procurement processes and manufacturing lead instances, and to stockpile essential supplies, parts, and chosen munitions to reply quickly to a contingency,” the report stated.
Trump and Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth have repeatedly denied that the U.S. is operating low on key munitions.
“I’ve simply obtained a Report that the US is producing extra Beautiful and Elite Weapons than at any time in our Historical past,” Trump wrote in a social media publish on Sept. 14. “A main focus of this manufacturing has been Patriots, THAAD Techniques, Tomahawks, and different Normal Missile Techniques, of which we have already got giant numbers in inventory.”
The munitions scarcity has raised issues that the struggle in Iran has undermined U.S. readiness for a possible battle with China. In one other instance of how the U.S. was pressured to divert sources to assist the Iran struggle, the watchdog report revealed that “no less than six U.S. warships had been re-tasked from the Pacific to the Center East” because of the battle.
The struggle has additionally resulted within the lack of dozens of U.S. navy plane. The report revealed that 4 F-15E jet fighters, an F-35A Joint Strike Fighter, an A-10 Warthog, seven KC-135 refuelers, and 9 different plane had been broken or destroyed within the struggle. No less than 30 MQ-9 drones had been destroyed in varied circumstances.
4 U.S. diplomatic amenities in Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE had been broken by Iranian airstrikes with an estimated whole price of $208 million as a consequence of harm and delayed development initiatives, per the report.
