A good business to be in.
Protecting Libyan civilians from their insane dictator isn’t cheap. A report on Operation Odyssey Dawn by the Congressional Research Service puts the price tag of only the first six days of operations at $400 million.
This study estimates that initial operations could run between $500 million and $1 billion, based on attacks on some 250 to 500 targets, and that the ongoing cost of a no-fly zone could range from $15 million to $300 million a week depending on the area of Libya that would be covered.
Using operational details provided by DOD and DOD cost factors, a “bottoms-up” estimate of the cost of initial operations suggests that in the first six days of operations, DOD has spent roughly $400 million. The bulk of these costs reflect potential replacement costs for the Tomahawk missiles launched from Navy ships and the Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs) dropped by B-2 bombers at the beginning of the operation to suppress Libyan air defenses (about $260 million), and for the loss of a F-15E strike fighter aircraft over Libya because of mechanical failures ($75 million replacement cost).
