Replacing the dozens of U.S. aircraft that have been damaged or destroyed in the Iran war will require more money than the staggering $1.5 trillion defense budget, the Air Force’s top general said.
Air Force Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, the service’s top uniformed leader, told House lawmakers Thursday that the historic defense budget is focused on buying more fighters, bombers, and tankers for the service’s fleet. Those losses in Iran have made additional funding from Congress outside the 13-figure budget request necessary, he said during a defense appropriations subcommittee hearing.
“We hope to be able to address this in a supplemental, for the aircraft that we’ve lost, and the procurement, going forward, is meant to increase the number of tails we have, especially in the fighter force, but it also includes bombers and tankers as well,” Wilsbach said. “Both supplemental and the budget, the ‘27 budget, is supposed to address those losses.”
Key U.S. Air Force assets, including a $500 million E-3 Sentry and four F-15E fighter jets, have been lost since Operation Epic Fury began in late February. Overall, nearly 40 U.S. aircraft have been destroyed and roughly 10 have been damaged, according to The War Zone’s tally of open-source information. Jules W. Hurst III, who is performing the duties of the Pentagon comptroller and chief financial officer, told reporters earlier this month that the $1.5 trillion budget, consisting of yet-to-be-approved reconciliation funds, was formulated “before we went into conflict with Iran.”
Hurst told House lawmakers Wednesday that the Defense Department has spent an estimated $25 billion during the two months of Iran war operations—a figure is reportedly much higher when accounting for base and aircraft damage. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif, said during the hearing that figure appeared to be “totally off.”
The administration has been seeking anywhere from $98 billion to more than $200 billion in supplemental funding for the ongoing war in Iran.
But Rep. Ken Calvert, the defense appropriations subcommittee chairman, told Air and Space Force leaders during the opening of Thursday’s hearing that lawmakers haven’t gotten details on an Iran war supplemental yet.
“I also want to acknowledge the aircraft we’ve lost and munitions we’ve expended in Iran, which is not insignificant,” the California Republican said. “We may see a request for a supplemental at some point, but we have not seen it yet. And it’s unclear how we plan to replenish stocks and address losses we’ve taken in our Air Force inventory.”
A supplemental would require more Congressional buy-in and oversight, versus additional reconciliation spending, which would be approved by a simple majority. While the Trump administration relied heavily on reconciliation funding for last year’s defense priorities, top lawmakers have said it’s not a certainty this year.
Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., said supplemental funding is preferred to reconciliation funds for the Air Force’s priorities because it can also be more easily accounted for, which has been a concern for lawmakers after the passage of Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
“We have no idea what is going to be happening in future base budgets,” said McCollum, the ranking member of the defense appropriation subcommittee. “That’s why having things built into the base or in a supplemental where we can track and know how the money is going to happen, versus a reconciliation, is so very important.”
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