Todd Harrison, a budget analyst, estimated a higher total, with a week-long strike costing between $500 million and $1 billion. The total would depend on the selected targets, bombs and the delivery methods used.
Libya Strikes
The March 2011 U.S. strikes on Libya would be the best comparison of what would be required for an attack on Syria, said Harrison, an analyst with the Center for Strategic and Budget Assessments, a research organization in Washington.
During the opening rounds of Operation Odyssey Dawn in Libya, the U.S. launched 112 Tomahawk missiles to clear the way for manned aircraft. Because each Raytheon Co. (RTN) Tomahawk cruise missile costs about $1.4 million, a similar attack on Syria would cost the U.S. $157 million.
Harrison said that if the U.S. sent Northrop Grumman Co. B-2 bombers, they would fly 36 hours round-trip from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri to Syria, with aerial re-fueling. The hourly cost of flying the B-2 bomber is about $55,000, according to estimates by the Pentagon comptroller.
Bomb Costs
The B-2 would be used to drop satellite-guided JDAM bombs. One such bomb costs about $61,000, including the guidance system made by Boeing Co. and the BLU-109 bomb it guides, according to contracting and Pentagon data. The KC-135 aerial refueling tanker costs about $11,000 per hour to operate, according to the Pentagon comptroller.
At the same time, tension exists between the Obama administration and some lawmakers over the notion of putting added pressure on the defense budget when the department is absorbing across-the-board budget cuts known as sequestration. Those cuts will reach $52 billion next fiscal year.
“We cannot keep asking the military to perform mission after mission with sequestration and military cuts hanging over our heads,” House Armed Services Committee Chairman Howard P. “Buck” McKeon said Sept. 2 on CNN. He has scheduled a Sept. 10 hearing on Syria, with testimony from Hagel and General Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The automatic budget cuts also make the cost of an operation a sticking point for some Democrats who don’t want to spend more on the military at a time when food stamps and other domestic programs are experiencing reductions.
Food Stamps
“I just sat through a Congress that decided we couldn’t afford food stamps for hungry Americans, so clearly I am concerned about cost,” said Representative Joe Garcia, a Florida Democrat.
Pentagon spokesman George Little yesterday declined to provide more details about the potential cost of any operation, though he said he has little doubt the costs will be covered.
“We have said that this is in the national security interests of the United States,” Little said at a Pentagon briefing. “And if this operation goes forward, if we’re asked by the president to conduct a military mission, we will conduct it. When something is that important, we’ll find a way to pay for it.”