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An investigation published by CNN on May 1 found that at least 16 United States military facilities across eight countries in the Middle East were damaged in Iranian strikes during the war.
According to an investigation, some of the facilities targeted in Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Iraq are currently unusable.
“I have never seen anything like this at U.S. bases,” a person familiar with the matter told CNN. “These were fast and precise strikes, using advanced technology.”
Iranian strikes targets included advanced aircraft, among them the U.S. E-3 Sentry airborne early warning and control, known as “the eyes of the United States in the Gulf,” which was destroyed at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia; critical communications equipment, including facilities destroyed at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait; and radar systems, such as those damaged at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan.
“Our radar systems are our most expensive and most limited asset in the region,” the source who spoke with CNN said, explaining the extent of damage.
Other American facilities hit in the Iranian strikes included Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, which was struck in two separate attacks, Naval Support Activity Bahrain and Camp Buehring in Kuwait.
CNN attributed the accuracy of the strikes to the 2024 secretly Iranian purchase of a Chinese TEE-014 satellite — a major upgrade over the satellites the Islamic Republic had used until then. The satellite gave it the ability to view American facilities with remarkable precision.
In response to the investigation, a Pentagon official said: “We do not discuss battle damage assessments from the war for security reasons. Our forces remained fully operational, and we continue to carry out our mission with the same level of readiness and effectiveness.”
On April 29, Jules “Jay” Hurst, the Pentagon’s top financial officer, told lawmakers from the House Armed Services Committee that the U.S. military has spent roughly $25 billion on the war with Iran since it began in late February.
However, the very next day, CNN reported citing three people familiar with the matter that the number given by Hurst was just a lowball figure that does not include the cost of repairing extensive damage suffered by American facilities in the Middle East.
One of the sources said the real cost estimate is closer to $40-50 billion when accounting for the costs of rebuilding American facilities and replacing destroyed assets.
The cost on the side of Israel, which pushed for the war in the first place, remains unknown, but there is no doubt it much less than that of the U.S.
CNN’s investigation came nearly a month after the ceasefire with Iran began. Diplomatic efforts led by Pakistan are yet to produce any result, and all recent reports indicate that the U.S. military is preparing to resume the war, possibly with ground operations inside Iran. This will rise not just the financial cost, but also the human one.
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