Feb. 20 (Bloomberg) -- The Pentagon needs at least $83 billion more for combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan through the end of this fiscal year, Pentagon officials told the White House.

This figure includes $7.3 billion to pay for adding troops in Afghanistan, Pentagon officials wrote to the Office of Management and Budget on Feb. 3. The U.S. will add about 17,000 to its force of 38,000, President Barack Obama announced this week.

The $83 billion is $13.3 billion more than Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in late December was needed. That estimate of $69.7 billion didn’t include the cost of sending more troops to Afghanistan, he said then.

Congress already has approved $65.9 billion in emergency wartime spending for fiscal 2009, which ends Sept. 30. The latest request would bring the amount to about $149 billion.

That is less than the $176 billion Congress approved for fiscal 2008 and the $171 billion for fiscal 2007, according to the Congress Research Service.

The Pentagon, in its letter, told OMB it “believes that $130 billion to $140 billion will be required in fiscal 2010.”

“Final decisions on these numbers require greater clarity on the pace of force flows into Afghanistan and out of Iraq,” it said.

The U.S. commander in Iraq, Army General David McKiernan, said Feb. 18 that the 17,000 extra soldiers and Marines “will get us what we need” through the summer months and the Afghan elections now scheduled for Aug. 20.

That number will give him “roughly two-thirds” of the additional 30,000 troops he requested to beat back a renewed Taliban insurgency, he told reporters at the Pentagon.

Request Coming ‘Soon’

The second fiscal 2009 request will be submitted to Congress “soon” after the White House releases the broad outline of its fiscal 2010 budget on Feb. 26, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said today.

The $7.3 billion extra for combat operations in Afghanistan would include the cost of new construction to accommodate the added troops and would fund the repair or replacement of war-worn equipment in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Pentagon spokesman Navy Commander Darryn James referred questions about the supplemental to OMB. OMB spokesman Tom Gavin had no immediate comment.

Gates, in a letter to lawmakers Dec. 31, said the second supplemental spending request would include $3.6 billion to increase, train and equip the Afghan National Army.

It also would include $600 million to buy four additional Lockheed Martin Corp. F-22 fighters and $7.5 billion to replace Boeing Co. AH-64 Apache attack and CH-47 transport helicopters, AM General Corp. Hummer vehicles and trailers and tractors built by various contractors, he wrote.

To contact the reporter on this story: Tony Capaccio in Washington at acapaccio@bloomberg.net.