The Pentagon’s top budget official told Congress on Wednesday that the Iran war has so far cost taxpayers an estimated $25 billion, the department’s first public disclosure about the total price tag since the earliest days of the war.

The new figure, from Pentagon Comptroller Jay Hurst, was released as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth came under fire from House Democrats who argued the costly war is being waged without congressional approval. The contentious House Armed Services Committee hearing was Hegseth’s first public testimony since the start of the U.S. war with Iran.

Hurst’s estimate, which he said covers mostly ammunition, comes after the U.S. expended thousands of expensive munitions in an air and missile campaign that struck 13,000 targets. Dozens of U.S. aircraft have been damaged or destroyed in the war, including an F-35 fighter, four F-15E fighters, as well as cargo aircraft and drones.

The panel’s top Democrat, Washington Rep. Adam Smith, said the administration hadn’t provided Congress with that figure before.“I’m glad you answered that question, because we’ve been asking for a hell of a long time,” Smith said. “No one was giving us the number.”

It’s the first public estimate since Hurst told a defense summit in March, during the first week of the Iran war, that the cost was roughly $11 billion at that point.

The Pentagon is expected to submit a supplemental spending request to Congress after it makes a “full assessment” of the cost of conflict. Lawmakers who met with Hegseth behind closed doors this week said they had not received a timeline or scope for the ongoing campaign.

Wednesday’s hearing was organized around the Trump administration’s $1.5 trillion budget request for fiscal 2027, but Democrats zeroed in on what they said was Operation Epic Fury’s limited impact, high cost and lack of an endgame.

The war is driving down President Donald Trump’s popularity and has shocked the global economy. Democrats, who hold a strong advantage ahead of the November midterms, demonstrated the kind of oversight they would employ if they win control of the chamber.

Democrats accused Trump of misrepresenting his progress to end the war, alienating allies and following a bullying and unrealistic strategy.

“As we sit here today, Iran’s nuclear program is exactly what it was before this war started,” Smith said. “They have not lost their capacity to inflict pain. They still have a ballistic missile program. They’re still able to blockade the Strait of Hormuz, and have the ships still capable of doing that. What is the plan to get that to change?”

Smith also blasted the Pentagon’s refusal to publicly acknowledge its role in an airstrike that destroyed an Iranian school, killing over 100 people, including many schoolgirls, teachers and parents. He said there was “no question” the U.S. was responsible for the mistaken strike.

“And yet, two months after it happened, we refuse to say anything about it, giving the world the impression that we just don’t care, we do not care about the casualties and chaos that is caused by our war,” Smith said. “And we should care, even if we want to prosecute that war.”

Hegseth was combative during the hearing, and in a tense exchange with Smith, he defended Trump’s decision to preemptively attack Iran to head off its nuclear ambitions.

“You have to stare down this kind of enemy who’s hell-bent on getting a nuclear weapon, and get them to a point where they’re at the table,” Hegseth said. “President Trump saw Iran at its weakest moment and took action.”

Pressed on why the administration launched a broader war if Iran’s nuclear facilities had been “obliterated” last summer, Hegesth said that the country had not given up its nuclear ambitions.

Hegseth argued that the U.S. military, backed by Trump’s “ironclad” drive to prevent Iran from gaining a nuclear bomb, had achieved “incredible successes.”

“The biggest challenge, the biggest adversary we face at this point are the reckless, feckless and defeatist words of congressional Democrats and some Republicans,” he said.

During the hearing, Connecticut Rep. Joe Courtney sharply criticized the administration for shifting aircraft carrier strike groups from the Pacific, where they served as a deterrent to China, to confront Iran, which was a low priority in the administration’s defense strategy. One carrier, the Virginia-based USS Gerald R. Ford, is in the midst of a difficult and record-long deployment.

“The Gen. Ford is on day 312 of its deployment,” Courtney said. “They’ve gone through fires, plumbing problems, and again, an extended deployment, which, in my opinion, is hitting readiness as hard as anything I’ve seen in the time that I’ve been on this committee.”

Hegseth’s testimony came amid bipartisan backlash from lawmakers about the administration’s lack of transparency around the war’s rationale and endgame. A handful of Republicans have joined Democrats in votes to end military involvement against Iran and several more have threatened to do so.

U.S.-Iran peace talks appeared to have stalled amid a ceasefire, but U.S. Central Command has been waging a naval blockade of Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz aimed at crippling Iran’s economy.

The war has reduced U.S. munitions stockpiles as the Pentagon is fighting to ramp up the defense industry’s capacity to build more quickly. Some of the most in-demand missile-defense interceptors take years to build and cost vastly more than the Iranian drones they have been used against.

Hegseth said the budget request would help the defense industry “double and, in some cases, triple or quadruple capabilities and capacities,” which he said would lead to more factories and would ease a backlog of arms sales to allies. The Pentagon has helped stimulate more than 250 private investment deals in 39 states worth $50 billion.

Committee Chair Mike Rogers, of Alabama, said the goal of the annual defense policy bill for this year is to expand the Pentagon’s legal authority to extend the defense industrial base.