War May be Costing $500M-$1B a Month
Viviane Lerner
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011111/ts/attacks_war_cost_3.html
Sunday November 11 5:54 PM ET
War May be Costing $500M-$1B a Month
By CALVIN WOODWARD, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - A U.S. helicopter lost in Afghanistan (news - web sites) a
week ago cost up to twice as much as the government spends yearly on scenic
byways. Each cruise missile is worth several American homes.
The total expense of the Afghan war may be nearly as hard to find as people
hiding in Afghan caves. By one estimate, the military assault is costing
$500 million to $1 billion a month - and above the $1 billion in promised
U.S. economic assistance to Pakistan, and debt relief for the country.'
The Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a private research group
that closely examines the cost of war, offered that monthly figure.
Precision is impossible without knowing more about how many bombs are being
dropped and what is happening with U.S. forces on the ground, among other
variables.
Still, parts of the war are adding up: the estimated $5,000 an hour to fly a
Navy FA-18 fighter-bomber, the $25,600 cost of one of the frequently used
Joint Direct Attack Munition bombs, the top-of-the-line Tomahawk cruise
missiles.
As for a running total, ``It's very much ballpark,'' said Steven M. Kosiak,
the center's director of budget studies. Some other analysts have projected
higher costs.
Stretched over a year, the price of the war could be $12 billion, half of
what the federal government spends on medical research.
By comparison, the bombing campaign against Yugoslavia in 1999 cost the
United States about $3 billion.
The 1991 Persian Gulf War (news - web sites) cost America an estimated $61
billion, but all but about $7 billion was reimbursed by allies. By some
accounting methods, the United States may have even made a profit.
Munitions at the disposal of U.S. forces in the Afghan war vary wildly in
price.
From the bargain basement: the 500-pound M-117, dropped from a heavy bomber,
for a mere $300 apiece.
At the high end: Tomahawk cruise missiles costing $600,000 to $1 million
each, many times more than the $147,100 median price of an American home.
U.S. officials said 50 Tomahawks alone were launched in the opening assault,
some from British forces, making an expensive debut. Dependence on cruise
missiles has lessened since then.
Pentagon (news - web sites) spokeswoman Susan Hansen said it takes time to
calculate costs above those normally associated with having forces abroad in
peacetime.
``The Department of Defense (news - web sites) will be collecting those
figures but at this point, a month into the conflict, we don't have them,''
she said.
On the home front, a study has taken a stab at the costs of the Sept. 11
terrorist attacks and all their fallout - an expense likely to dwarf the
costs of the Afghan war.
Peter Navarro, an economist at the University of California in Irvine,
calculated $100 billion in costs so far, nearly half from lost productivity,
sales, advertising dollars and airline revenue in the immediate aftermath.
That is apart from stock market losses.
Long-term costs are so speculative and dependent on government policy that
Navarro did not add them up.
But his calculations do include ``terrorist tax'' items costing billions to
make flying safer. They include $20 to $40 an hour for the time each person
wastes by going to the airport 90 minutes earlier.
``The stakes here are simply breathtaking,'' Navarro wrote in the report for
the Milken Institute.
To assess the cost of the fighting overseas, budget analysts at least have
the experience of past wars to draw from.
Kosiak came to his projection in two ways: one using costs of strike
missions over Kosovo and Iraq and applying them to the current conflict, the
other by adding up everything known about the Afghan campaign.
Altogether, he calculated that the first 25 days cost $400 million to $800
million.
Munitions used on the Taliban include 15,000-pound BLU-82 ``daisy-cutter''
bombs, costing $27,000 each. The bunker-busting GBU-37 costs $231,000
apiece, according to the Federation of American Scientists.
America lost a Pave Low helicopter - valued at $40 million, about double
last year's budget for National Scenic Byways projects - in bad weather in
Afghanistan, and an $11 million Black Hawk chopper in Pakistan.
-
A sampling from private researchers of price tags and estimates concerning
the Afghan war and terrorist attacks: War:
-JDAM bomb: $25,600
-Tomahawk cruise missile: $600,000-$1 million
-MK-82 ``dumb'' bomb: $600-$1,400
-BLU-82 ``daisy-cutter'' bomb: $27,000
-GBU-37 bunker-busting bomb: $231,000
-Black Hawk helicopter of type lost in Pakistan: $11 million
-Pave Low helicopter of type lost in Afghanistan: $40 million
-Hourly cost of flying Navy FA-18 fighter-bomber: $5,000
-Estimated war cost per month: $500 million-$1 billion Attack Aftermath:
-Property damage: $10-$13 billion
-Lost economic output: $47 billion
-Projected airline security: up to $41 billion
-Economic stimulus package: $100 billion in legislation passed by
Republican-controlled House, $66.4 billion in Senate plan favored by
Democrats.
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On the Net:
Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments: http://www.csbaonline.org/
Milken Institute: http://www.milken-inst.org/
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