Paper

In the two years since October 7, 2023, the United States has incurred significant costs in a broad set of military actions in support of U.S., Israeli, and allied interests in the wider Middle East. Economist Linda J. Bilmes (Senior Lecturer, Harvard University) estimates the costs of these actions through September 2025 to range from U.S. $9.65 - $12.07 billion.
This spending includes the costs of the U.S. military maintaining two carrier strike groups in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, launching over 1,000 airstrikes, and employing costly missile systems to counter low-cost drone attacks by the Houthi militant group based in Yemen. In Iran, Operation Midnight Hammer marked the first-ever combat use of 30,000-pound “bunker buster” bombs dropped by U.S. B-2 stealth bombers.
In addition, according to a companion report, the U.S. government spent $21.7 billion on military aid to Israel in the same period, for a two-year total of $31.35 - $33.77 billion in U.S. spending on the post-10/7 wars.
This spending has come with an extensive human toll: over ten percent of the population of Gaza has been killed or injured, while at least 5.27 million people have been displaced in Gaza and the wider region.
See Related Papers
The Human Toll of the Gaza War: Direct and Indirect Death from 7 October 2023 to 3 October 2025
U.S. Military Aid and Arms Transfers to Israel, October 2023 – September 2025