ISC Defence Intelligence

Operation Epic Fury: Pentagon Confirms $25 Billion Munitions Burn Rate Over Eight-Week Iran Campaign

Technical Summary

On 29 April 2026 the Pentagon’s Chief Financial Officer Jules Hurst III testified to the House Armed Services Committee that Operation Epic Fury (the joint US–Israeli military campaign against Iran that commenced on 28 February 2026) has obligated approximately $25 billion to date, with the “bulk of the figure” devoted to ordnance and only a minority share to operations and personnel. US casualties stand at 13 service members killed in action and 400 wounded; the operation has run for eight weeks and remains active. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman General Dan Caine confirmed a forthcoming supplemental funding request to Congress, set against the FY27 baseline budget proposal of $1.5 trillion.

The arithmetic produces a sustained obligation rate of approximately $3.1 billion per week, of which a conservative two-thirds (roughly $2.0 billion per week, or $16 billion across the eight weeks) is attributable to munitions. That order of magnitude is consistent only with the high-end air-launched and sea-launched stand-off inventory: the Tomahawk Land Attack Missile (TLAM) Block V at approximately $2.0 million per round, the AGM-158B/C-3 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile Extended Range (JASSM-ER) at approximately $1.5 million, the GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) at approximately $20 million per weapon, and the GBU-31(V)1/B Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) at approximately $25,000 per kit plus the Mk-84 2,000–lb (907 kg) general-purpose body. Insensitive Munitions (IM) compliance under STANAG 4439 and AOP-39 means most of the inventory now carries IMX-101 or PBXN-109 fills rather than legacy Tritonal or Comp B.

Approximately, at this day, we are spending about $25 billion on Operation Epic Fury, most of that is in munitions — a sustained obligation rate of $3.1 billion per week across an eight-week campaign. Jules Hurst III, Pentagon CFO, House Armed Services Committee testimony, 29 April 2026

Analysis of Effects

An eight-week, $16 billion munitions burn implies expenditure on the order of 1,500–3,000 stand-off precision-guided munitions (PGM), depending on weapon mix. Industrial-base replacement timelines are the binding constraint. Tomahawk production at Raytheon RMS Tucson runs at approximately 90 rounds per month under the Multi-Year Procurement (MYP) authority; JASSM/LRASM combined production at Lockheed Martin Troy, Alabama is funded for approximately 1,100 missiles in FY26, of which ~25% is the JASSM-ER variant likely employed in Epic Fury; GBU-57 MOP production sits at low double-digit annual rates, with the entire pre-Epic-Fury inventory thought to number under 30 weapons. Replacement of any MOP expended at Iranian deeply-buried hard targets (DBHT) against the Fordow-class enrichment-facility profile is therefore measured in years, not months.

The general-purpose bomb (GPB) line is more elastic. GBU-31 JDAM kits are mature and General Dynamics OTS Garland and Boeing produce at scale; the constraint is on the bomb body itself: Mk-82 (500 lb / 227 kg) and Mk-84 (2,000 lb / 907 kg) bodies fill at McAlester Army Ammunition Plant (MCAAP) Oklahoma, with explosive-fill throughput dependent on energetics availability. The Joint Munitions Command (JMC) has consolidated 155 mm and air-delivered fill operations at MCAAP and Holston Army Ammunition Plant (HSAAP), the same facilities under multi-year procurement authority recently extended through FY32 by the FY26 Department of Defense Appropriations Act.

Personnel and Safety Considerations

For ammunition logistics personnel, the operational implication is sustained AAFES-style theatre throughput at the Class V (ammunition) supply category running well above peacetime rates. Forward Ammunition Holding Areas (AHAs) and Theatre Storage Areas (TSAs) supporting Epic Fury must be sited per AASTP-1 inhabited-building distance (IBD) and public traffic route distance (PTRD) tables, with HD 1.1 stockpile concentrations driving Quantity-Distance (QD) calculations. The 395th Ordnance Company’s African Lion 26 deployment (cited in DVIDS reporting on 27 April 2026) demonstrates the parallel CONUS-to-EUCOM/AFRICOM ammunition-flow tempo that Epic Fury overlays. Render-safe and disposal protocols for damaged or low-order PGMs follow IATG 11.10 and US Army TM 9-1300-214 guidance.

Data Gaps

DATA GAP: Pentagon has not disclosed the per-weapon expenditure breakdown by munition type. DATA GAP: Stockpile remaining for TLAM, JASSM-ER and GBU-57 not in open source. DATA GAP: No public targeting summary for Iranian DBHT engagement. DATA GAP: Israel Defense Forces (IDF) munitions consumption from US-supplied stocks (presumed AGM-114 Hellfire, GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb, Mk-83 1,000-lb bombs) not separated from US obligation totals. DATA GAP: The supplemental funding request size has not been quantified.

AI-assisted technical assessment based on open-source material. Not a formal intelligence product. Image attribution noted where applicable.