The US military now wants to “destroy or cripple” Iran’s missile industry, Adm. Cooper
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said Thursday the US “can sustain the war as long as it takes” as war against Iran continues for a sixth day, with a top military official indicating that the US will focus on destroying Iran’s missile industry.
Hegseth held a press conference in Tampa with Admiral Brad Cooper, commander of US Central Command, which leads US forces in the Middle East. Thursday’s forum came one day later Hegseth said the workcalled Operation Epic Fury, against Iran was “in its infancy.” Hegseth also announced on Wednesday that the An Iranian warship had been sunk by a US torpedo, the first time the US Navy has sunk a battleship with a torpedo since World War II.
Hegseth told reporters on Thursday: “Our timeline is ours and only ours to control.”
He also said that the US is “not short of weapons.” CBS News was reported early Thursday that the Arab countries in the Persian Gulf region are dangerously low on balancers to reduce Iranian retaliatory attacks.
Cooper said the next phase of the mission will focus on trying to “systematically dismantle Iran’s missile production capabilities for the future.” He said the project – which seeks to “destroy or cripple” Iran’s missile industry – is underway but “will take time.”
“We don’t just hit what they have, we hurt their ability to rebuild,” he said.
He said that in the past 72 hours, the US military had struck nearly 200 sites deep in Iran, including Tehran, and on Thursday, B-2 bombers dropped “a number of 2,000-pound infiltrators” targeting highly-launched ballistic missiles. According to Cooper, Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks have decreased significantly as the war progresses.
The US military has now destroyed 30 Iranian ships, according to Cooper, including a drone carrier roughly the size of a World War II aircraft carrier.
Hegseth told reporters that the US is also “establishing total dominance in the skies.”
HR McMaster, a CBS News contributor who served as a national security adviser during President Trump’s first term, said after a press conference that the US is attacking air defenses “you can fly all kinds of planes with impunity.”
Six members of the US Army Reserve have died at war with Iran. Hegseth said that a terrible incident happened when the army attacked a facility in Kuwait.
Hegseth said Thursday that the U.S. military will “remember and honor” the six people who were killed for their “resolute rededication to this mission.”
Hegseth participates in a press conference during a visit to US Central Command headquarters in Tampa. This is the first time that Cooper has given a press conference since the campaign started at the weekend.
On Monday night, he released a video on social media expressing condolences for the six service members who were killed over the weekend and gave an update on the operation of the campaign.
He said the US has hit nearly 2,000 2,000 missiles with more than 2,000 missiles. He said more than 50,000 troops, 200 warplanes, two strike groups, and bombers from the US were involved, “representing the largest US buildup in the Middle East in a generation.”
