JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:

Twenty-five billion dollars - that's how much the Pentagon estimates the war with Iran is costing. That figure came up today during a hearing on the Hill on the Pentagon's $1.45 trillion budget request. But the questions, they weren't just about the costs. They were about the rationale for the war itself and just how it might end. For more, we turn now to NPR Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman. Hi there.

TOM BOWMAN, BYLINE: Hey, Juana.

SUMMERS: Tom, what'd you learn today?

BOWMAN: Well, this is the first hearing involving Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman General Dan Caine since the war started back in February. And again, for the first time, we have a cost estimate from Pentagon officials - $25 billion for the war that is now entering its third month. Secretary Hegseth talked about the overall budget request for some $1.4 trillion for Defense. That figure amounts to - get this - nearly a 44% increase over the current year. That money will be used to replace missiles and other weapons used in the war, as well as building more ships, aircraft and also a heavy emphasis on drones and counter-drone capabilities, tens of billions for that effort alone.

SUMMERS: One of the driving reasons for this war, of course, was Iran's nuclear capabilities. Did that come up?

BOWMAN: You know, it did come up, especially among Democrats who questioned the rationale for the war. And it often got pretty combative when some lawmakers pointed out that the U.S. attacks last year on Iran, called Operation Midnight Hammer, led to, quote, "obliteration" of Iran's nuclear capability. Here's Congressman Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee.

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ADAM SMITH: OK, we haven't gotten there yet, for all of the lethal capacities...

PETE HEGSETH: Well, their nuclear facilities have been obliterated underground. They're buried.

SMITH: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

HEGSETH: And we're watching them 24/7.

SMITH: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

HEGSETH: So we know where any nuclear material might be. We're watching that.

SMITH: Reclaiming my time for a quick second here. We had to start this war, you just said, 60 days ago because the nuclear weapon was an imminent threat. Now you're saying that it was completely obliterated?

HEGSETH: It had not given up their nuclear ambitions. And they had a conventional shield of thousands of missiles. They're at the weakest...

SMITH: So Operation Midnight Hammer accomplished nothing of substance.

HEGSETH: You're missing the point.

SMITH: It left us at exactly the same place we were before.

BOWMAN: Now, as we just heard, Hegseth said Iran has not given up its nuclear ambitions. But just last year, Juana, the U.S. intelligence worldwide threat estimate stated Iran was not building a nuclear weapon and that the country's leadership has not reauthorized the nuclear weapons program it suspended in 2003.

SUMMERS: And meanwhile, the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, and the U.S. naval blockade continues, right?

BOWMAN: You know, that's right. The U.S. has prevented more than three dozen ships from entering or leaving Iranian ports. And meanwhile, Iran is harassing shipping entering the Strait of Hormuz in that narrow waterway leading to the Arabian Sea, of course. So as a result, the flow of oil tankers, other ships has dropped to a trickle. And that shipping clog has led to higher prices on things like fertilizer, liquefied natural gas and oil. I just noticed in my neighborhood gas station they're charging $4.47 a gallon. It's gone up 30 cents in just the past two weeks.

SUMMERS: That is a lot. Tom, I mean, as an American general famously said in Iraq, tell me how this ends.

BOWMAN: Well, negotiations, but at this point, there are no talks. Bottom line is Iran is not willing to give up its enrichment program, although that's what the U.S. is insisting upon. Trump administration sharply criticized the Iran nuclear deal under Obama that allowed small amounts of enrichment. And, Juana, I remember talking with a senior military officer at the time who told me the benefit of that deal under Obama was there'd be no need for us to get involved, and the diplomats could deal with this for the next decade. But right now, it's just the military involved.

SUMMERS: NPR's Tom Bowman. Thanks, as always.

BOWMAN: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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