Pentagon: Air War Cost $550M

The Hill reports:

The Libyan intervention to date has cost Washington over $550 million, and U.S. costs should hold steady at around $40 million per month, Pentagon officials said Tuesday.

As U.S. forces led the way in taking out Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s air defense and communications systems, then began pounding his army units, the military “incurred added costs of about $550 million through [Monday],” a Pentagon official told The Hill in an email.

Around 60 percent of that is from the munitions fired at Libyan targets, the official said, adding “the remaining costs are for higher operating tempo of U.S. forces and deployment costs.”

The Pentagon’s first disclosure of the costs of the operation came hours after President Obama delivered a televised evening address on the campaign.