US Admits Failure in Yemen: Trump Op Costed More Than $1 Billion, Still Houthis are Strong

By Staff, Agencies

NBC quoted two US military officials as briefing that US President Donald Trump’s fight against Yemen never dealt a crippling blow to the Yemeni military group, but it has cost America more than $1 billion since March, including the thousands of bombs and missiles used in strikes, along with seven drones shot down and two fighter jets that sank.

After weeks of operations by the US, the Yemen Armed Forces [YAF] seemed to still be able to strike outside Yemen, launching an attack that targeted "Israel’s" main international airport just this week.  But the surprise deal that Trump announced Tuesday, in which the US would suspend strikes and other operations against Yemen in exchange for the group halting its attacks on US ships, might be enough to declare mission accomplished, for now.

“Details about the deal have been sparse. It is still unclear how it was made, how long it might last and what it meant in the long term for a conflict that began weeks after October 2023,” the NBC said.

What is known is that the agreement, which was brokered in part through the Omani government, according to two US officials, pertains only to US ships. The YAF are expected to continue firing on "Israel" and on other ships.

“The administration was clearly looking for an off-ramp for this campaign against Yemen,” said one US official familiar with the military operations against the country.

Admitting failure in confronting Yemen and its Ansarullah group, the report quoted a US official as saying that “Success in the fight since March was hard to measure: US drones sent to determine if targets had been hit were often shot down by the YAF and there were no American forces on the ground in Yemen who could assess the effectiveness of the campaign for the Pentagon.”

“But the effort under Trump came at great cost and was depleting American stockpiles,” the two US officials said.

Since March 15, when the Trump administration announced its current campaign against Yemen, known as Operation Rough Rider, the Pentagon has expended roughly 2,000 bombs and missiles worth more than $775 million against the group, according to the two US officials briefed on the cost.

That includes hundreds of 2,000-pound bombs; which can cost $85,000 apiece; at least 75 Tomahawks, which run about $1.9 million apiece; at least 20 AGM 158 air-launched cruise missiles at about $1.5 million per missile; and many other munitions. 

After this article was initially published, a military Department official told NBC News that these munitions cost figures are inaccurate and overstated, saying they’re closer to $400 million. But other military officials disputed that.

The US also spent at least $10 million moving at least two Patriot missile systems and military supplies to sustain the systems to the region by ship, according to a US military tally provided to NBC News. That does not include the cost of equipment it moved by air.

During congressional testimony last month, Adm. Sam Paparo, who heads US Indo-Pacific Command, said the military used 73 C-17 flights in moving a single Patriot air defense system from his region to the Middle East. A C-17 costs about $27,000 per hour to fly, and the US military moved two Patriot systems to the region.

But there was mounting concern that the Trump administration’s approach to fighting Yemen would never be long term.