Mideast missile duels have cost US Navy nearly $1B, secretary says

The U.S. Navy is nearly $1 billion in the hole after defending Israel from Iranian missiles last weekend and fighting off Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping since October, the service’s secretary said Tuesday in a bid to convince House lawmakers to approve $95 billion in supplemental funding.

“I would argue that the President's budget numbers are adequate, but that's also prior to the attacks that we've just had this weekend alone, for example. So we are now closely approaching $1 billion in expenditures for munitions that we need paid back by the supplemental,” Carlos Del Toro told senators during a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing.  

“We've been firing SM-2s, we've been firing SM-6s, and—just over the weekend—SM-3s to actually counter the ballistic missile threat that's coming from Iran. So we need this supplemental to pass this week,” Del Toro said.

The Senate passed the supplemental in February; the GOP-controlled House has yet to bring it to a vote.

Interceptor missiles are roughly twice as expensive than the anti-ship missiles they are built to destroy. Variants of the Standard Missile-3 run from $9.7 million to $27.9 million apiece. (The missile made its combat debut this weekend, when the Navy fired “four to seven” of them during the defense of Israel.) SM-2s run just over $2 million each and SM-6s go for about $3.9 million.

The Navy is asking in its 2025 budget request for $6.6 billion to build on its multi-year purchases of critical munitions: Standard Missile; Naval Strike Missile; Long Range Anti-Ship Missile, or LRASM; and Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile, or AARGM, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti said in her written testimony.

“Additionally, the Navy is investing in industry and in its organic industrial base to ensure we can ramp up munitions production in the immediate future. Building upon the FY23 and FY24 requests, the FY25 budget request invests $227 million to expand capacity for Trident II, Long Range Anti-Ship Missiles, Standard Missiles, and MK-48 torpedoes. We welcome supplemental funding to help replenish munitions expended in the Red Sea,” Franchetti wrote. 

The Defense Department has been pushing House lawmakers to pass the $95 billion supplemental the Senate passed in February. The money would replenish the U.S. arsenal of weapons sent to Ukraine. 

After months of stalling on the supplemental vote, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, said on Monday that the chamber could vote on separate bills to support Israel, Ukraine, and U.S. efforts in the Indo-Pacific region. 

Del Toro argues against splitting up the supplemental package, saying that failure to support Ukraine now would be more expensive later. 

“And if we fail to support them, as we have committed to doing so, then without question, I think that there'll be a future we have to make even greater investments into the defense of Europe in the future,” the secretary said. “And if we don't meet our requirements and our commitments in Ukraine, and Ukraine falls, there's no question in my mind that [China’s President Xi Jinping] will be emboldened, actually, in his intent towards Taiwan.”

Franchetti, who was asked whether the Navy had enough capacity to counter missile threats, replied that the president’s 2025 budget request was “adequate for what we have now” but the service “requested additional funds for continued improvement” in munitions and the “supplemental to replenish what we've been using already in the Red Sea.”