USNI News
U.S. has Moved up to 500 Million Barrels of Oil Through Gulf of Oman, Hegseth says
By Hope Hodge Seck
A contentious Senate hearing on a supplemental budget request of nearly $88 billion, largely earmarked to cover the ongoing war on Iran, revealed new figures about the war’s cost to date and the effects of the military’s Project Freedom initiative to escort commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz.
The hearing did little, however, to provide concrete answers on what it would take to end the conflict.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth appeared Tuesday before the Senate Appropriations Committee alongside the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, to defend the request, more than $67 billion of which would go to the Pentagon. While the request, which is separate from the historic $1 trillion defense budget request for fiscal year 2026, includes $21 billion to replenish munitions stockpiles and about $20 billion for Middle East operations, it also contains more controversial add-ons. About $800 million, for example, would fund continued National Guard mobilization in Washington, D.C., and other U.S. cities. Navy leadership has said the service would face operations and maintenance funding challenges if the supplemental wasn’t passed by the end of July.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, pressed Hegseth on the recent collapse of the U.S-Iran agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. A 60-day ceasefire was signed in mid-June, but Trump announced July 13 that he was re-imposing a naval blockade on Iran amid Iranian attacks on commercial ships.
“On May 5, you claimed that Iran doesn’t control the strait, and you said that there was a, quote, powerful red, white, and blue dome over the strait,” Murkowski said. “If that was true, how did Iran shrink ship traffic in the strait to a trickle again last week?”
Hegseth cited the U.S. military operation Project Freedom, an initiative launched May 4 to escort merchant ships through the strait. It was formally paused May 5, but Hegseth said the operation “went underground” after that, seeing the benefit of operating covertly.
“We pushed almost, I believe, between 400 and 500 million barrels of oil under the nose of Iran over the course of Project Freedom,” he said. “So we’ve been in control of moving traffic through there for quite some time.”
Hegseth added that the current blockade of all Iranian ships and ports now in place remained effective, but did provide additional details on escort operations or the success of commercial vessels passing through the strait. He also did not directly respond to Murkowski’s question about whether he had talked Trump out of charging a 20 percent toll on ships passing through, an idea the president previously proposed.
“Iran’s not charging tolls, and they’re shooting at ships right now,” Hegseth said.
Sen. Patty Murray, (D-Wash.), expressed frustration at the lack of information from the Pentagon as the war nears the six-month mark.
“[President Donald Trump] is now asking for all of us to approve tens of billions of dollars in new funding for the war, while his administration still has yet to share actual cost estimates, essential information to justify this request, and a plan for where on earth this conflict goes next,” she said. “This administration is either hiding the truth from Congress and the American people, or if you take at face value what they’ve said in the few briefings that we’ve had, they have no idea what is going on and no plan to right the ship, neither of which is acceptable.”
In response to questions from Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, Hegseth said the Pentagon would spend $37.5 billion through the end of September on the war in Iran – a significant jump from the last cost estimate, of $29 billion. Hegseth also confirmed to Durbin that $75 billion of the $150 billion allocated to the Pentagon in last year’s budget reconciliation package remained unspent, though he maintained there were “plans and designs” to use that money “on the rebuild of our military.”
“All the things that the president wanted us to focus on – shipbuilding, hypersonics. I mean, the Biden administration ignored hypersonics. They just decided to pretend like that technology didn’t exist and we shouldn’t invest in it,” Hegseth said, blasting his predecessor, retired Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, for overseeing a “woke agenda.”
“I don’t know what Lloyd Austin did for four years, I really don’t,” he said. “The amount of neglect, the amount of stale thinking and bureaucracy was staggering when we took over.”
But while the supplemental request includes around $12 billion to fund emerging capabilities, Hegseth offered few details on plans to advance shipbuilding, hypersonic weapons and other programs.
Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) pressed Hegseth for details on the president’s FY 2027 budget request, which asks to fund one Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer (DDG-51), despite the Navy’s stated goal to build two destroyers per year.
“You just made the case for this generational investment because of the under-investment, Senator, in shipbuilding in the previous administration,” Hegseth said. “Just static, flat, bureaucratic, slow. We’re having to revitalize that industry, and one DDG is a reflection of a backlog in capability. So as we ramp up on more capacity, those numbers of DDGs, the workhorse of our Navy, will go up as we grow that force.”
The Navy is nearing the end of a 10-hull, multi-year procurement contract of destroyers that was awarded to HII Ingalls Shipbuilding and General Dynamics Bath Iron Works in 2023.
It is also unclear how the Pentagon and administration define the victory that would bring about the end to a war in Iran. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, asked Hegseth directly to define winning the war.
“I would say ensuring Iran never has a nuclear weapon. That’s been clear from the president from Day One,” he said.
Van Hollen noted that Hegseth had said the U.S. “obliterated Iran’s ability to create nuclear weapons” in the joint Operation Midnight Hammer on June 22, 2025. He added that then-Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard had previously testified that Iran did not intend to restart its nuclear program.
“The president of the United States, just about a week ago, said Iran has committed not to develop a nuclear weapon, which of course is a commitment they’ve made for many years,” Van Hollen said. “We need to enforce that. That’s what we are doing under the [2015 Iran nuclear deal.]”