September 16, 2026

Iran Blockade Costs Are Draining America’s Global Military Power

By: Becca Wasser

This article was originally published in Bloomberg.

As US President Donald Trump tries to force Iran into submission, a naval blockade is proving to be his tool of choice. But the operation is testing the limits of the American military, exhausting personnel and weakening Washington’s position elsewhere in the world.

Sailors on the USS Abraham Lincoln, who recently pulled into port in Thailand for the first time in nine months, said they had suffered through maintenance failures and spiraling morale. Some reported a black market for toiletries and a 40-day internet outage that cut them off from their families.

The US has poured billions of dollars into developing advanced weapons for a potential conflict with China. Now the Iran war has consumed a huge chunk of these high-tech arms, particularly long-range strike weapons and air-defense missiles.

The elite 82nd Airborne Division, meant to respond to crises anywhere in the world at a moment’s notice, is on track for a 12-month deployment in the Middle East without seeing any action, according to a person familiar with the matter.

So far, at least 28 Navy ships have rotated through the latest blockade, which began on July 14, racking up an estimated bill of more than $2 billion in ship operating costs. Since the naval buildup began in January, those costs have topped $7.1 billion, according to a Bloomberg Economics analysis of the blockade’s naval operations. That price tag does not include all the US assets being used to escort tankers through the Strait of Hormuz.

Read the full article in Bloomberg.

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