In just the first 100 hours of its military campaign against Iran, the United States is estimated to have spent US$5.2 billion ($7.4 billion) — from firing thousands of munitions to operating fighter jets and naval assets.
That's US$1.2 billion ($1.7 billion) a day.
The figures, compiled in an analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, demonstrate the staggering cost of the first few days of Operation Epic Fury — the US military campaign against Iran.
And that's not including how much Israel's military is spending on its side striking Iran.
Officially, the Pentagon has not released an estimate of the cost of the war yet. But the estimate aligns with a New York Times report stating that Pentagon officials had told Congress that the first week of the war had cost approximately US$6 billion ($8.6 billion).
It's unclear how long the war in the Middle East could drag on.
After US-Israeli strikes on Iran at the end of February that spiralled into a regional conflict, US President Donald Trump suggested it could be "four weeks or so". Late last week, Trump said he "didn't think it's going to be long" but did not elaborate.
Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi has said the war will end "when we are certain that it will not be repeated and that reparations will be paid".
As it rages on, the US is looking at replenishing stocks and accelerating weapons production — and that could mean windfalls for the world's major weapons manufacturers.
But it comes against the backdrop of a tragic human toll. Iran's health ministry recently said at 1,200 people had been killed and 10,000 injured since the war broke out.
As it has widened, Lebanese authorites say at least 850 people have been killed amid mounting hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel.
Some US allies in the Gulf, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Kuwait, have also reported deaths in the wake of Iranian retaliatory strikes. SBS News is unable to independently verify these figures.
The United Nations has also warned migrant workers in Lebanon and Iran are caught in the crisis and are "among the most vulnerable", with many displaced and relying on community networks for shelter and assistance.
The UN has also called for an investigation into an attack on a girls' school in Iran on the first day of US and Israeli strikes.
Iran's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Ali Bahreini, said 150 students were killed, while the Iranian Red Crescent said the death toll reached 175.
SBS News is unable to independently confirm the death toll.
Jagannadha Pawan Tamvada, a professor of entrepreneurship at London's Kingston University, has labelled this dynamic an "uncomfortable truth" about war.
"While it inflicts pain on some, it creates windfalls for others," he wrote in The Conversation.
There is a "paradox of incentives" at the heart of the conflict, he wrote, with those "best placed to end it are among those with the most to gain from its continuation".
"Determining who benefits is essential to understanding why wars persist long after it may seem rational to stop," he wrote.
Which companies are seeing a surge?
On the first day of trading after the Iran war began, weapons makers saw their stock price rise a collective 1.5 per cent on 3 March.
The share price of Lockheed Martin, the world's largest defence contractor, rose over 4 per cent to hit near all-time highs, closing at US$676.70 ($960). It has been trading around $650 (roughly $925) over the past week.
Lockheed makes the F35 fighter jet, the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) missile defence system and the long-range Precision Strike Missiles (PrSMs), which are being used in the military operation.
In early March, the US Central Command published a video on its social media accounts showcasing its use of the PrSMs in the war, saying it was a "historic first".
According to the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, an American think tank that promotes peace and diplomacy, the company's stock price has increased nearly 40 per cent since the start of the year, as tensions between the US and Iran grew.
It's not the only manufacturer whose products are being used in the war and whose stock price has seen significant gains.
Another company, RTX, which makes the Patriot long-range air and missile defence system and the Tomahawk missile, had its share price rise 4.7 per cent.
Northrop Grumman, which makes the B-2 stealth bombers that were used to strike Iranian ballistic missile facilities on the first day of the war, also saw its share price rise by six per cent.
Ben Freeman, a director at the Quincy Institute, said all of the major US arms makers have seen their stock prices soar since the war began.
"Their market values increased by billions of dollars in just the first ten days of this war," Freeman told SBS News.
"That's because the US is burning through weapons they make at a furious clip.
"For example, we've used hundreds of Lockheed Martin's Patriot missiles, which cost around US$4 million ($5.7 million) a piece. If you add it all up, this war is costing US taxpayers more than a billion dollars every day."
Freeman said it's the same for Israeli weapons firms, whose stock prices have also risen on news of the war.
He said Elbit Systems, an Israeli maker of drones and surveillance systems, has jumped 30 per cent in just the past month.
"Their big weapons firms are cashing in big time on the war with Iran," he said.
On 4 March, Elbit became the highest-valued company on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange after a recent 4 per cent growth in their share price.
But the two industries are connected, Freeman adds, which in turn fuels further profits.
"The Israeli military also uses a lot of equipment and munitions made by the US firms, so when the Israeli military launches strikes or intercepts a missile, chances are that a US company profits from it," he said.
'Even more military spending'
Some of these companies are now working to replenish American military supplies that have been reduced by the Iran war.
Executives from Lockheed, RTX, BAE Systems, Boeing, Honeywell Aerospace, L3Harris and Northrop Grumman recently attended a meeting with Trump at the White House, focusing talks on accelerating weapons production.
"We have agreed to quadruple critical munitions production," Lockheed said in a social media post after the meeting, adding the work had begun months ago.
There are reports that it's likely the Pentagon will ask Congress for another US$50 billion ($71.5 billion) to fund the extra spending required.
Freeman says the Iran war will be a catalyst for even more US military spending.
He pointed to reports that Trump is expected to present Congress with a bid to increase military spending to US$1.5 trillion ($2.15 trillion) next year.
"That would be more than the US has spent on its military since World War Two," he said.
"It will help to bankrupt those of us in the US and it will only encourage us to embark on even more devastating wars abroad. It's a lose-lose for everyone except the firms and the people that profit from war."
The full impact of the war on weapons companies is yet to be seen.
Freeman said a prolonged war means more demand for the bombs and other munitions produced by defence contractors.
"War is literally good for their business," he said.
"And, Pentagon contractors have more than a thousand lobbyists on their payroll, so there's a reason that the voices of the American public — which is adamantly opposed to this war — are being drowned out in [Washington] DC.
A number of polls in the US suggest Americans are not keen on a protracted war with Iran.
'We're going to make a tonne of money'
Veteran Republican senator Lindsay Graham — a longtime supporter of US foreign intervention — was frank in a recent interview defending the war, suggesting the US would "make money" from a new geopolitical order in the Middle East.
"When this regime goes down, we are going to have a new Middle East; we are going to make a tonne of money," he told Fox News, adding that the Trump administration would help secure the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump has since called on US allies to help secure the vital waterway on Iran's southern border through which roughly one-fifth of the world's oil and gas normally flows.
When asked about the costs so far to the US, Graham said it was the "best money ever spent" and a "really good investment" for the US to take down the Iranian regime and make the US "safer".
He said the US would gain a "partnership" with "31 per cent of the world's oil reserves", which he argued came from Venezuela and Iran collectively.
The global economy has so far been left reeling from the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, and fuel prices have spiked.
Middle Eastern oil giants have been forced to close refineries and plants in the firing line of Iran's retaliatory strikes.
As a major oil producer, Trump has argued that, when prices rise, the US makes "a lot of money".
Others outside the region could also stand to benefit.
Joaquin Vespignani, a professor of economics at the University of Tasmania, said a small number of energy exporters outside the Gulf may experience some short-term gains from higher prices, particularly major oil and LNG exporters.
"Countries such as the United States and Australia could see stronger export revenues as global energy markets tighten. However, these gains tend to be concentrated in the energy sector and do not necessarily translate into broad economic benefits for the overall economy," he said.
John Ferguson, head of the Future of Trade initiative at Economist Impact, said oil or energy-exporting countries could benefit.
"As the price of oil and gas has increased sharply, major producers of these commodities will see an increase in their energy export earnings in the coming months.
"However, the resulting global instability may eventually dampen demand for their other exports."
The US has also temporarily loosened sanctions, allowing countries to buy sanctioned Russian oil and petroleum products stranded at sea in a bid to calm energy markets.
Ukraine, which has been under full-scale Russian invasion for more than four years, and its European allies criticised the move, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warning it would fund Moscow's war machine.
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