Pentagon burned through $5.6B in munitions in first 2 days of Iran war 

The Pentagon churned through about $5.6 billion worth of munitions during the first two days of the U.S. war with Iran, a congressional source familiar with the matter told The Hill Monday night.

The Defense Department delivered the estimate to Congress on Monday, the source said.

The source did not elaborate on what kind of munitions were expanded and which kind was utilized during the first 48-hour window. 

Worries about munitions supplies have been raised since the beginning of the war, but the Trump administration has dismissed concerns that the military is feeling the strain on its munition stockpiles.

Military officials in briefings have not provided details, given munitions supplies are a security and intelligence issue.

The U.S.-Israeli war with Iran is now in its 11th day, and it is unclear how long it will last.

On Monday, President Trump characterized the war as “short term” and indicated that it could end soon. 

“We took a little excursion because we felt we had to do that to get rid of some evil. And I think you’ll see it’s going to be a short-term excursion,” the president said. “How good is our military, right? Amazing. How good? Short term. Short term.”

Hegseth did not say Tuesday morning how long the war will go on, but emphasized that “our will is endless.”

“Ultimately, the president gets to determine the end state of those objectives, right?” Hegseth said during the press briefing at the Pentagon. “But what he’s said continually, and I want the American people to understand, is this is not endless.

The Pentagon declined to comment on the estimate that was reported earlier by The Washington Post. 

So far, the U.S. military has hit over 5,000 targets inside Iran since the conflict broke out and it has sunk or damaged more than 50 Iranian ships, defense officials said this week. 

Hegseth said Tuesday morning that “today will be, yet again, our most intense day of strikes” inside Iran. 

“The most fighters, the most bombers, the most strikes. Intelligence more refined and better than ever. So that’s on one hand,” The Pentagon chief told reporters. “On the other hand, the last 24 hours have seen Iran fire the lowest number of missiles they’ve been capable of firing yet.”