Looks like my earlier estimates were low.
BUDGET BUSTER: COST OF U.S. MILITARY OPERATION IN KOSOVO ESTIMATED TO TOP
$3 BILLION
The cost of the U.S. air campaign against Yugoslavia already has topped the
$400 million mark, according to a soon-to-be-published report, and the
price tag quickly could balloon to between $2 billion and $4 billion if the
airstrikes proceed for even a few weeks longer.
As the Clinton administration expands the scope of the mission, the cost of
the operation now threatens to set off budgetary and political explosions
on Capitol Hill, the LOS ANGELES TIMES is planning to report in a Tuesday
dispatch from Washington.
"If the bill for the Kosovo operation is handled through regular budgetary
channels, it could easily burst the once-inviolate budget caps that limit
spending by broad categories, cut into military modernization funds, and
possibly starve domestic programs," reports the paper's Paul Richter and
Art Pine.
The Navy's sea-launched Tomahawks carry a price tag of about $1 million
apiece; Air Force missiles, $2 million each. More than 220 cruise missiles
have already been fired.
The loss of the F-117A Stealth fighter over Yugoslavia alone is estimated
to have cost $70 million. |
