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Since '90s, cost of Libya operation 2nd only to wars

By Richard Wolf, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Not since similar no-fly zones were employed in Iraq and the Balkans during the 1990s has the Pentagon committed such expensive resources outside a war zone as it has in Libya.

By Luca Bruno, AP

U.S. F-16 fighter jets are seen on the tarmac after landing as a C-17 plane takes off at the NATO air base in Aviano, Italy.

Even if the operation ends within weeks, the B-2 bombers, F-15 fighter jets, Tomahawk cruise missiles and "smart" bombs flying over and raining down on the North African nation will likely drive its cost to $500 million to $1 billion, experts say.

Such a cost most likely can be absorbed by a Pentagon budget more than 500 times that size. But it comes as the Obama administration is battling Republicans in Congress over billions of dollars in domestic spending cuts. A government shutdown is threatened in early April, and the nation will hit its $14.3 trillion debt ceiling about a month later.

The projected cost of the Libya no-fly zone pales compared with the war in Afghanistan, which is costing about $2 billion per week, according to government data, but the cost would approach the amounts spent in Kosovo, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Iraq for a no-fly zone during the Clinton administration.

"It's not a big deal if this doesn't go on for very long," says Dov Zakheim, a top Pentagon budget official under Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. "They really start to feel the pressure once it goes over $1 billion."

Much of the money would have been spent even without military action, Zakheim and other former Pentagon officials say. Flights over Libya are to some degree replacing normal training costs. Ships in the Mediterranean Sea would be deployed elsewhere. Missiles and bombs eventually would become obsolete and need to be replaced.

"There are some marginal costs, but in a baseline budget, it's really something that can be absorbed," says Lawrence Korb of the Center for American Progress and an assistant secretary of Defense in the 1980s. U.S. military expenses

U.S. military expenditures to enforce a no-fly zone over Libya don't yet compare to previous efforts in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo and Iraq. They are dwarfed by the costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan:

Sources: Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, Congressional Research Service

If costs rise above $1 billion, defense budget analysts say, the Obama administration may need to ask Congress for emergency spending authority. For now, they agree with White House officials who have said the money can be found within the Pentagon's $548 billion budget request for the 2011 fiscal year — a request that has yet to be fulfilled as budget talks drag on.

"This is very small compared to what we're spending in Afghanistan right now," says Todd Harrison of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. He estimated the initial cost of a no-fly zone at $400 million to $1 billion, with weekly operational costs from $30 million to $300 million.

A new spending request might not be well-received on Capitol Hill. Already, four House members led by Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio have said they will try to cut off funding for Libya. Republicans Walter Jones of North Carolina and Ron Paul of Texas have joined the effort.

"The fact that funds for contingency military operations exist doesn't answer the question of how much we're spending, and will continue to spend, in Libya," says Democratic Rep. Bruce Braley of Iowa.

"I'm not the only one asking these questions — the American people are demanding answers, too," Braley says.

The biggest expenses are the $1 million to $1.5 million for each Tomahawk cruise missile fired from Navy ships in the Mediterranean — a total that had reached 186 missiles by Sunday. Two-thousand-pound smart bombs known as J-DAMs, or Joint Direct Attack Munitions, that have been dropped on Libyan tanks cost about $30,000 apiece.

B-2 bombers cost about $10,000 per hour of flight time. Some 200 U.S. warplanes are enforcing the no-fly zone or attacking targets, according to Vice Adm. William Gortney.

Then there's the replacement cost for the F-15 jet that crashed over Libya last week. An F-35 replacement would cost more than $50 million, Zakheim says, and possibly as much as $100 million.

Additional costs, such as for expensive jet fuel and combat pay, will add to the Libya price tag. But the U.S. share of the cost may diminish as NATO assumes the command role.

"It is a time-limited and scope-limited operation, which will then result in less cost as we move to further stages," White House press secretary Jay Carney says. "So we are confident, based on the mission, that those costs can be covered with existing funds."