The United States Department of Defense has asked the White House to request more than $200 billion from United States Congress to fund the war against Iran, The Washington Post reported on Thursday, March 19, citing sources. According to them, the Pentagon needs the funds to urgently increase weapons supplies, which have significantly decreased after three weeks of intensive strikes on Iran. In the first week of the war alone, the United States spent more than $11 billion.

Sources in the White House believe that Congress is unlikely to approve such a request, since the proposed amount is close to the total aid to Ukraine (about $188 billion) provided since the beginning of Russian invasion of Ukraine (2022). Therefore, over the past two weeks, the Pentagon has предложил several funding models to the White House for the war in Iran, WP writes.

Officials and analysts interviewed by the publication believe that the Defense Department’s request will test the level of political support among lawmakers for the war with Iran. In their view, Democrats and some Republicans may try to block the request to express their disagreement with U.S. involvement in the military actions.

An additional challenge for any Pentagon request will be the capacity of the American defense industry, which will not be able to quickly ramp up production in the short term. The Department of Defense plans to spend the allocated funds on complex and expensive weapons systems, whose production will heavily depend on available labor and supplies of critical materials, experts in the U.S. military-industrial complex told The Washington Post.