The Pentagon has asked the White House to approve a request to Congress for more than £158 billion ($200 billion) to fund Operation Epic Fury, an ask so large that some of President Donald Trump's own advisers privately doubt it can pass.
The figure, reported by the Washington Post on 18 March 2026 and confirmed by multiple sources familiar with the internal discussions, would dwarf the costs of the air campaign conducted over the past three weeks and instead prioritise the urgent scaling-up of precision munitions production.
