Quincy Brief
86

U.S. Military Aid and Arms Transfers to Israel, October 2023 – September 2025

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This brief was co-published by Brown University’s Costs of War Project

Introduction

The United States has provided at least $21.7 billion in military aid to Israel since the start of the war in Gaza on October 7, 2023. However, under both the Biden and Trump administrations, an additional tens of billions of dollars in arms sales agreements have been committed for weapons and services that will be paid for in the years to come. This report covers the spending streams that have gone into that $21.7 billion, as well as detailing the billions in commitments that the U.S. government has promised for arms to be supplied in the future, much or all of which will be paid for by additional appropriations for military aid to Israel.

Given the scale of current and future spending, it is clear the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) could not have done the damage they have done in Gaza or escalated their military activities throughout the region without U.S. financing, weapons, and political support.

According to a companion report by Linda J. Bilmes, the U.S. has spent an additional $9.65 – $12.07 billion on military operations in Yemen and the wider region sparked by or in support of Israeli military operations since October 7, 2023, for a total of $31.35 – $33.77 billion and counting in U.S. spending on two years of war.1

Table 1. U.S. Spending on Post-10/7 Wars, Oct. 2023 – Sept. 2025

Of the $21.7 billion already provided in military aid, the U.S. provided $17.9 billion in the first year of war and $3.8 billion in the second year.2Some of the $21.7 billion in aid has already been delivered to Israel in the form of weapons, bombs, and funding, while other portions will be delivered in future years.3Essentially, the $21.7 figure is about how and when U.S. arms and military financing are paid for. It is a separate question to ask how long it will take to produce or deliver those weapons, or what it takes to keep them up and running in the midst of a war. In terms of combat capability, these are the most important questions. Yet they are also the areas where there is the least amount of public information.

The current U.S.-supported Israeli war was launched in response to the Hamas terrorist attacks of October 7, 2023, which killed approximately 1,200 people and wounded thousands more.4The Israeli military is dependent on U.S. weapons, especially aircraft, bombs and missiles, which have done the majority of the damage in Gaza and fueled Israel’s attacks on other nations in the region.

To be effective, any U.S. government effort to impede Israel’s military operations in Gaza and beyond must include a ban on new sales, a suspension of arms in the pipeline that have been committed but are yet to be delivered, and a cut off of spare parts and support for the maintenance of Israeli weapons systems already in use.

What Has Gone Into the $21.7 Billion

The $21.7 billion in military aid to Israel is compiled from several channels:

  • Foreign Military Financing (FMF), an aid program authorized by the State Department and implemented by the Pentagon that pays for U.S.-origin weapons and military services transferred to other nations’ governments;
  • “Offshore Procurement”: U.S. funds given to the Israeli government that can be used to build up Israel’s own arms industry;
  • Drawdowns from, and replenishing of, existing U.S. stocks to replace weapons supplied to and used by Israel, including a war reserve stockpile based in Israel;
  • Special funding for ammunition procurement and arms production capacity to continue supplying weapons to Israel.

Table 2: U.S. Military Aid to Israel, Oct. 7, 2023 to Sept. 24, 2025, in Millions of $USD65

In technical terms, all of the spending channels described above support “arms transfers” – a catch-all term for the supply of U.S. weapons to a foreign nation. But in most contexts, particularly at the beginning of the process, these transfers are referred to as “arms sales.” Arms sales involve agreements to supply weapons, whether they are ultimately paid for through U.S. aid or paid for by the foreign customer. In the case of Israel, most arms sales are eventually paid for by U.S. aid, but some of that aid may be yet to come, authorized in future years as deals move forward from initial agreements towards final delivery.

Arms sales flow through two channels:

  • Foreign Military Sales, which are brokered and negotiated by the U.S. governmen with the foreign customer. Once an agreement is reached on price, timing and delivery schedule, the supplying company receives payment in increments based on how far along they are on production of the system being prepared for export.6
  • Direct Commercial Sales (DCS), which involve items that are licensed by the State Department, give more leeway to the supplying company to negotiate the terms of the deal, and tend to involve items that are not considered “major defense equipment,” including small arms and light weapons.7

Major arms sales of a certain value must be notified to Congress and can be blocked by a resolution of disapproval passed by two-thirds of each house of Congress.8

As noted above, the $21.7 billion total for military aid to Israel excludes arms sales agreements to be paid by the U.S. in the future.

Israel has developed its own arms industry, but Israel’s indigenous arms production capacity has been made possible in part through a provision that had historically allowed it to use 25% of its military aid from the U.S. for that purpose. For Fiscal Year 2025, that figure dropped to just $250 million of Israel’s U.S. military aid that could be used for its domestic industry, as part of an agreement to phase out this arrangement altogether by 2028.9

U.S. arms have been central to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Israel Police operations in Gaza, the West Bank, and beyond. The weapons in Israel’s existing inventory that are being used in Gaza and the broader Middle East come mainly from the United States. Israel’s entire inventory of combat capable aircraft comes from the U.S., including 75 F-15s, 196 F-16s, and 39 F-35s. Israel’s attack and transport helicopters are also all of U.S. origin, including 46 Apache helicopters and 25 Sea Stallion and 49 Black Hawk transport helicopters.10Israel’s U.S.-supplied weapons – which include not only its combat aircraft but also tens of thousands of bombs and missiles, and advanced targeting systems – have inflicted a devastating humanitarian toll on the people of Gaza. Over 60,000 Palestinians have died from direct Israeli military attacks, with tens of thousands more dying from starvation and preventable diseases provoked by the Israeli military’s brutal assault on Gaza, which many independent experts – including human rights organizations based in Israel – have defined as a genocide.11

What We Know About Weapons Deliveries

An August 2025 report by the Security Assistance Monitor at the Center for International Policy (CIP) estimated that as of that time, nearly $4.2 billion in U.S. weapons had been delivered to Israel since October 7, 2023, including $2.3 billion worth of bombs, missiles, and mines and another $416 million worth of firearms – weapons directly relevant to Israel’s war effort. As the CIP report notes, this is just the tip of the iceberg:

“The figure only captures weapons exported from the United States during this time frame, but does not include any that have been authorized and not yet delivered. As of April 2025, the State Department’s Bureau of Political Military Affairs reported there were 751 active Foreign Military Sales cases with Israel, valued at 39.2 billion USD. . . . It also likely does not include some weapons transferred through the Excess Defense Articles service, nor weapons withdrawn from the War Stockpiles Reserve-Israel. The weapons Israel purchases through offshore procurement, using U.S. taxpayer dollars to buy arms from Israeli companies are also not captured.”12

The current Trump administration has accelerated the delivery of military aid to Israel, including lifting a suspension on the delivery of Mark 84 and BLU-109 2000 pound bombs, which the Israeli government has used extensively to destroy apartment buildings, hospitals, water infrastructure, and other civilian targets.13 The Trump administration also reinstated the delivery of 20,000 assault rifles approved by the State Department, which had been delayed by the Biden Administration due to concerns that weapons intended for the Israeli police would fall into the hands of settlers.14

Future Commitments

One significant example of arms that have been promised and not yet been paid for or delivered – and thus is excluded from this report’s $21.7 total – is that, during its final month in office, in January 2025, the Biden administration announced an $8 billion arms sale to Israel including, but not limited to:

  • Medium-range air-to-air missiles
  • 155 mm projectile artillery shells for long-range targeting
  • Hellfire AGM-114 missiles
  • 500-pound bombs, among other items.15

This $8 billion sale is for systems that will be paid for and delivered at some point over the next few years. The Israeli government’s payment will be made at a later date either from military aid supplied to Israel since October 7, 2023, or, more likely from a new aid package yet to be appropriated, in FY 2026 or beyond.

The current Trump administration has also promised a great deal of future transfers, most if not all of which will likely be paid for via U.S. military aid funding. Arms sales to Israel notified to Congress since the Trump administration took office on January 20, 2025 have totaled at least $10.1 billion.16These arms sales include:

– Two thousand one hundred sixty-six (2,166) GBU-39/B Small Diameter Bombs Increment 1 (SDB-I), (Notification letter of February 28, 2025, transmittal number 24-13);

– Two thousand eight hundred (2,800) MK 82 General Purpose, 500-pound bomb bodies (Notification letter of February 28, 2025, transmittal number 24-13);

– Thirteen thousand (13,000) KMU-556E/B, or KMU-556H/B with SABR-Y, KMU-556F/B, or KMU-556J/B Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) Guidance Kits for the MK-84 bomb body (Notification letter of February 28, 2025, transmittal number 25-26);

– Three thousand four hundred seventy-five (3,475) KMU-557E/B, or KMU-557F/B, or KMU-557H/B with SABR-Y, or KMU-557J/B JDAM Guidance Kits for the BLU-109 bomb body (Notification letter of June 30, 2025, transmittal number 25-59);

– One thousand four (1,004) KMU-572E/B, or KMU-572F/B, KMU-572H/B with SABR-Y, or KMU-572J/B JDAM Guidance Kits for GBU-38v1 (Notification letter of February 28, 2025, transmittal number 24-13)

– Seventeen thousand four hundred seventy-five (17,475) FMU-152A/B fuzes (Notification letter of February 28, 2025, transmittal number 24-13).

– $660 million worth of Hellfire missiles (Notification letter of February 7, 2025, transmittal number 24-104);

– $295 worth of Caterpillar bulldozers (Notification letter of February 28, 2025, transmittal number 24-38); Two hundred one (201) MK 83 MOD 4/MOD 5 General Purpose 1,000-pound bomb bodies (Notification letter of February 28, 2025, transmittal number 25-26);

– Four thousand seven hundred ninety-nine (4,799) BLU-110A/B General Purpose 1,000-pound bomb bodies (Notification letter of February 28, 2025, transmittal number 25-26);

– One thousand five hundred (1,500) KMU-559C/B Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) guidance kits for the MK 83 bomb body (Notification letter of February 28, 2025, transmittal number 25-26);

– Three thousand five hundred (3,500) KMU-559J/B JDAM guidance kits for the MK 83 bomb body (Notification letter of February 28, 2025, transmittal number 25-26);

– Thirty-five thousand five hundred twenty-nine (35,529) MK 84 or BLU-117 General Purpose (GP) bomb bodies, or a combination of both (Notification letter of February 28, 2025, transmittal number 25-34);

– Four thousand (4,000) I-2000 Penetrator warheads; $180 million for “power pack engines” (Notification letter of April 14, 2025, transmittal number 25-28);

– Three thousand eight hundred forty-five (3,845) KMU-558B/B Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) guidance kits for the BLU-109 bomb body (Notification letter of February 28, 2025, transmittal number 24-13);

– Three thousand two hundred eighty (3,280) KMU-572 F/B JDAM guidance kits for the MK 82 bomb body (Notification letter of February 28, 2025, transmittal number 24-13).17

The major offers announced by the Trump administration in February 2025 were largely negotiated during the waning weeks of the Biden administration, but only notified to Congress after the Trump administration took office.

On September 19th of this year, administration officials told the Associated Press that the Trump administration had informed Congress of its plan to offer Israel another $6 billion including a $3.8 billion sale for 30 AH-64 Apache helicopters, nearly doubling Israel’s current stocks, and a $1.9 billion sale for 3,200 infantry assault vehicles for Israeli army.18

Trump administration support has coincided with an increase in U.S. military presence and operations in the region at sea, near Yemen, and elsewhere, including air strikes against Iran. As noted above, the cost of U.S. military deployments and air strike prompted by or in support of Israel’s military activities are addressed in a companion report by Linda J. Bilmes and total $9.65 – $12.07 billion.19

Current Policy Debates

Opposition to the use of U.S. arms in supporting Israel’s military actions in Gaza and the broader Middle East is growing in Congress, but is currently not enough to impede the flow of dollars and weapons to the Israeli military.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has forced three votes of disapproval with respect to U.S. arms to Israel. All three failed, but the second garnered the support of the majority of Democrats in the Senate, by far the greatest level of opposition ever registered in Congress against arming Israel.20The battle against arming Israel will continue, and it is beginning to gain bipartisan support, including from Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has called Israeli actions in Gaza a genocide.21

Looming in the background is a renegotiation of a ten-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) regarding U.S. military aid to Israel. The current MoU, negotiated during the Obama administration, expires in 2028, and calls for $3.8 billion in military aid per year, consisting of Foreign Military Financing (FMF), Offshore Procurement (funds used to build up Israel’s own arms industry), and support for Israel’s missile defense programs.22Discussions on the next MoU may start soon, although these negotiations are often conducted behind closed doors with little information provided to Congress or the public. Given the extreme, destabilizing, and criminal actions undertaken by the Israeli government using U.S.-supplied arms, the next MoU should be negotiated in the full light of day with meaningful input from Congress and the U.S. public.

Conclusion

Without U.S. money, weapons and political support, the Israeli military could not have committed such rapid, widespread destruction of human lives and infrastructure in Gaza, or escalated its warfare so easily to the regional level by bombing Syria, Lebanon, Qatar and Iran.

Without U.S. support, the Israeli government would have no combat aircraft to drop bombs and many fewer bombs. An increasing share of Israel’s arsenal would be down for maintenance without U.S. government or U.S. contractor mechanics and spare parts. In addition, Israel’s government could not have built a military of its current size and sophistication without U.S. financial backing.

Thus far, the U.S. government has not acted to stop the killing by cutting off military aid, weapons sales and deliveries, or assistance with maintenance and spare parts.

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Authors

William D. Hartung

Senior Research Fellow

William D. Hartung is a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and an expert on the arms trade, Pentagon spending and strategy, and nuclear weapons policy. His books include Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the…

Citations

  1. Bilmes, L. (2025, October 7). Costs of United States Military Activities in the Wider Middle East Since October 7, 2023. Costs of War, Watson School, Brown University. https://costsofwar.watson.brown.edu/paper/WiderMiddleEastCosts ↩

  2. For the $17.9 estimate, see Bilmes, L., Hartung, W. & Semler, S. (2024, October 7). United States Spending on Israel’s Military Operations and Related Operations in the Region, October 7, 2023 to September 30, 2024. Costs of War, Watson School, Brown University, 4. https://costsofwar.watson.brown.edu/paper/united-statesspending-israels-military-operations-and-related-us-operations-region-october-7; Congressional Researce Service. (Updated 2025, May 28). U.S. Foreign Aid to Israel: Overview and Developments Since October 7, 2023.

    Congress.gov. https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/RL33222 ↩

  3. Frayer, L. (2025, November 11). Israel Revises Down Its Death Toll from the October 7th Hamas Attacks to About 1,200. NPR.org. https://www.npr.org/2023/11/11/1212458974/israel-revises-death-toll-hamasattacks-oct-7 ↩

  4. Frayer, L. (2025, November 11). ↩

  5. Note: The figure for year two ($3.8 billion) is folded into various subcategories in Table 2, going towards a total estimate for two years of war. ↩

  6. U.S. Department of Defense, Defense Security Cooperation Agency. (Accessed 2025, September 24). Foreign Military Sales FAQ. https://www.dsca.mil/Resources/Foreign-Military-Sales-FAQ ↩


  7. U.S. Department of Defense, Defense Security Cooperation Agency. (2025, January 31). A Comparison of
    Foreign Military Sales (FMS) Versus Direct Commercial Sales (DCS).
    https://www.dsca.mil/Resources/Publications/Publication/Article/4049928/a-comparison-of-foreignmilitary-sales-fms-versus-direct-commercial-sales-dcs ↩

  8. Congressional Research Service. (2025, March 28). Arms Sales: Congressional Review Process. https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/RL31675 Details on the Congressional notification process are as follows: “Under the Arms Export Control Act (AECA), the President must formally notify Congress 30 calendar days before the Administration can take the final steps to conclude a government-to-government foreign military sale of major defense equipment valued at $14 million or more, defense articles or services valued at $50 million or more, or design and construction services valued at $200 million or more. In the case of such sales to NATO member states, NATO, Japan, Australia, South Korea, Israel, or New Zealand, the President must formally notify Congress 15 calendar days before the Administration can proceed with the transaction. However, the prior notice threshold values are higher for sales to these destinations.” ↩

  9. Binder, S. (2025, September 10). Extraordinary Sums and Extraordinary Privileges: U.S. Security Assistance to Israel Since October 7, 2023. Middle East Democracy. https://mideastdc.org/publication/extraordinarysums-and-privileges-u-s-security-assistance-to-israel-since-october-7-2023/ ↩


  10. International Institute of Strategic Studies. The Military Balance 2025, 347. ↩

  11. Shurafa, W. & Magdy, S. (2025, July 29). Over 60,000 Palestinians Have Died in the Israel-Hamas War, Gaza’s Health Ministry Says. Associated Press. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/over-60000-palestinians-have-died-in-the-israel-hamas-war-gazas-health-ministry-says; Associated Press. (2025, July 28). Two Israeli Human Rights Groups Say Their Country is Committing Genocide in Gaza. NPR.com. https://www.npr.org/2025/07/28/nx-s1-5482881/israel-gaza-genocide-rights-groups-btselem-physicians; United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights. (2025, May 7). End Unfolding Genocide or Watch It End Life In Gaza: UN Experts Say States Face Defining Choice. https://www.ohchr.org/en/pressreleases/2025/05/end-unfolding-genocide-or-watch-it-end-life-gaza-un-experts-say-states-face; Stamatopoulou-Robbins, S. (2024, October 7). The Human Toll: Indirect Deaths from War in Gaza and the West Bank, October 7, 2023 Forward. Costs of War, Watson School, Brown University.
    https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/papers/2024/IndirectDeathsGaza ↩

  12. Hansen, A. & Tolany, A. (2025, August 7). SAM Special Report: Arming Israel’s Atrocities in Gaza. Center for International Policy. https://internationalpolicy.org/publications/security-assistance-monitor-specialreport-arming-israels-atrocities-in-gaza/ ↩

  13. (2024, July 16). What We Know About the Bomb Used on Gaza ‘Safe Zone’. France24. https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20240716-what-we-know-about-the-bomb-israel-used-on-gazasafe-zone; Hall, N., Kirschenbaum, A., & Michel, D. (2024, January 12). The Siege on Gaza’s Water. Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). https://www.csis.org/analysis/siege-gazas-water; Ostaz, D. (2025, June 28). Inside of One of Gaza’s Last Functioning Hospitals. ABC News. https://abcnews.go.com/International/inside-gazas-functioning-hospitals-staff-nasser-hospitalfightingstory?id=123254136 ↩

  14. Pamuk, H. (2025, April 4). U.S. Sending 20,000 Assault Rifles that Biden Had Delayed. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/us-sending-israel-20000-assault-rifles-that-biden-haddelayed-say-sources-2025-04-04/ ↩

  15. Lee, M. (2025, January 4). Biden Administration Notifies Congress of $8 Billion Weapons Sale to Israel. Associated Press. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/biden-administration-notifies-congress-of-planned-8-billion-weapons-sale-to-israel ↩

  16. Notifications to Congress are listed under “Major Arms Sales” on the website of the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA): https://www.dsca.mil/Press-Media/Major-Arms-Sales. The date of the notification letter covering each group of weapons is noted in the text. ↩

  17. Details on arms offers are from the website of the Department of Defense’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency’s compilation of official notifications to Congress, at https://search.usa.gov/search?query=ISrael&affiliate=dod_dsca&utf8=%26%23×2713%3B ↩

  18. Price, M. L. & Matthew Lee, M. (2025, September 19). Trump Administration Proposes Selling Nearly $6

    Billion in Weapons to Israel. Associated Press. https://apnews.com/article/us-arms-sales-israel-trumpbb8b4e67fd77c723ed45308054eefefe ↩


  19. Bilmes, L. (2025, October 7). ↩

  20. Groves, S. (2025, July 30). Senate Rejects Bid to Halt Sale of Bombs and Rifles to Israel, But Democratic Opposition Grows. Associated Press. https://apnews.com/article/bernie-sanders-israeli-weapons-saledemocrats-gaza-58945751c7f88c1434a4be86e11af167 ↩

  21. Jimison, R. & Karni, A. (2025, July 29). Greene Calls Gaza Crisis a ‘Genocide,’ Hinting at Rift on the Right Over Israel. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/29/us/politics/marjorie-taylor-greenegaza-genocide.html ↩

  22. Congressional Research Service. (Updated 2025, May 28). U.S. Foreign Aid to Israel: Overview and Developments Since October 7, 2023. Congress.gov. https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/RL33222,

    pp 19-20. ↩