Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine held a press conference this morning with a few updates on Operation Epic Fury.
“On day ten of Operation Epic Fury, we are winning with an overwhelming and unrelenting focus on our objectives, which are the same as the day I gave my first briefing here on Operation Epic Fury,” said Hegseth. “They’re straightforward, and we are executing them with ruthless precision.”
Hegseth also reiterated the objectives: “One, destroy their missile stockpiles, their missile launchers, and their defense industrial base missiles and their ability to make them. Two, destroy their Navy, and three, permanently deny Iran nuclear weapons forever.”
Tuesday will be another bad day for Iran:
It’s a laser-focused, maximum authority mission, delivered with overwhelming and unrelenting precision. No hesitation, no half measures. As President Trump declared yesterday, we’re crushing the enemy in an overwhelming display of technical skill and military force. We will not relent until the enemy is totally and decisively defeated. But we do so — we do so on our timeline and at our choosing. For example, today will be yet again our most intense day of strikes inside Iran.The most fighters, the most bombers, the most strikes, intelligence more refined and better than ever, so that’s on one hand. On the other hand, the last 24 hours have seen Iran fire the lowest number of missiles they’ve been capable of firing. Yet just the bifurcation, just the trend lines that we talked about on our first briefing. You see, this is not 2003. This is not endless nation-building under those types of quagmires we saw under Bush or Obama. It’s not even close. Our generation of soldier[ [sic] will not let that happen again. And nor will this President, who very clearly ran against those kinds of never-ending, nebulously-scoped missions. Those days are dead. Instead, we’re winning decisively with brutal efficiency, total air dominance, and an unbreakable will to accomplish the President’s objectives on our timeline. We stay locked on the target because here at the Department of War, that’s our job.
CENTCOM already said that the military has struck 5,000 targets and damaged or destroyed over 50 ships.
Caine backed up CENTCOM claims:
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Dan Caine: “To date, [U.S. forces have] struck more than 5000 targets. U.S. Strategic Command bombers recently dropped dozens of 2,000-pound, GPS-penetrating weapons on deeply buried missile launchers across the southern flank. We also have struck several one-way drone factories to get at the heart of their autonomous capability. And, of course, alongside our regional partners along the southern flank, continue to execute intercepts against one-way attack drones using fighters and — and attack helicopters. Our strikes mean we’ve made significant progress in reducing the number of missile and drone attacks out of Iran. Ballistic missile attacks continue to trend downward, 90% from where they’ve started, and one-way attack drones have decreased 83% since the beginning of the operation, a testament to our air defenders and our air defense systems. And as I said, our partners in the region continue to do great work as well.””Second, we’re making substantial progress towards destroying the Navy. In the first ten days of the conflict, we’re more than 50 Iranian naval ships into the campaign using a combination of artillery, fighters, bombers, and sea-launched missiles. As Admiral Cooper noted last Thursday, we struck and sank an Iranian drone carrier ship. And U.S. Centcom continues today to hunt and strike mine-laying vessels and mine storage facilities. This — this work will continue.”
“We’ve begun to target Iran’s military and industrial complex again, focusing on centers of gravity to get upstream of the shooters out in the field, in order to deny them the ability to continue to generate those — those one-way attack drones,” added Caine.
The Daily Wire’s Mary Margaret Olohan asked about the rumors that new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei sustained injuries in an attack.
Hegseth said he cannot comment on Khamenei right now.
Hegseth confirmed that President Donald Trump told Putin that Russia should not be involved in the Iran war.
The New York Times’ Eric Schmitt asked a decent question:
NYT’s Eric Schmitt: “First, last week you talked about this being the beginnings of an air campaign that could last 3 to 8 weeks. Can you give us your assessment on where we are now? And, Mr. Chairman, in any conflict, the enemy or the adversary adapts to the tactics it faces. Can you talk about the most challenging adaptation the Iranian military has made to the U.S. military? What challenges are you facing most right now? Thank you.”@SecWar: “I appreciate the question. Where we are is in a very strong place, giving the President of the United States maximum options, and from the beginning, from this podium, we haven’t stated how long it will take. Our will is endless. Ultimately, the President gets to determine the end state of those objectives, right? But — but what he’s said continually, I want the American people to understand is this is not endless. It’s not protracted. We’re not allowing mission creep. The President has said a very specific mission to accomplish, and our job is to unrelentingly deliver that. Now he gets to control the throttle. He’s the one deciding — he’s the one elected on behalf of the American people when we’re achieving those objectives. And so, it’s not for me to posit whether it’s the beginning, the middle, or the end. That’s his. And he’ll continue to communicate tha. What we — what we serve him as — is we give him updates on a daily basis of exactly where we are, so he can make that determination on the throttle. Mr. Chairman.”Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Caine: “Thank you for the question on adaptation. As you’re right, no plan survives first contact with the enemy or Murphy. They’re adapting, as are we, of course. We have very entrepreneurial warfighters out there. I’d rather not for operational security reasons. Tell them what’s working. So I’ll — I’m not going to non-answer that question based on that. But we are watching what they’re doing and we are adapting faster than they are.”Schmitt: “Are they more formidable than you anticipated, general?”Caine: “I mean, I think they’re fighting, and I respect that, but I don’t think they’re more formidable than what we thought.”
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