They each broadly quantified the destruction of Iran\u2019s military capabilities over the first five weeks of the war.<\/p>\n
\u201cPerhaps most importantly, we\u2019ve destroyed Iran\u2019s defense industrial base and their ability to reconstitute those capabilities for years to come. We attacked, along with our partners, approximately 90% of their weapons factories,\u201d Caine said. \u201cEvery factory that produced Shahed one-way attack drones was struck. Every factory that produces the guidance systems that go into those drones was struck.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, some analysts warned it might be too soon to know the full extent of damage and Iran\u2019s potential to rapidly resupply its armory, particularly without the completion of comprehensive combat assessments.<\/p>\n
\u201cTreat these figures with real skepticism,\u201d Kelly Grieco, senior fellow at the Stimson Center, told DefenseScoop.<\/p>\n
More to the story<\/p>\n
Operation Epic Fury has been billed as a U.S.-led, Israel-coordinated military campaign to annihilate Iran\u2019s leadership, ballistic missile and drone capabilities, naval power, manufacturing capacity and nuclear infrastructure, since it was launched by Trump on Feb. 28.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the course of 38 days of major combat operation, the joint force achieved the military objectives as defined by the president,\u201d Caine said on Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Throughout the war, Iran attacked U.S. military facilities and other targets around the Middle East with deadly drone and missile barrages and disrupted at times nearly all maritime traffic flowing on a major global shipping route and chokepoint for oil near the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n
Shortly before the expiration of a deadline set by Trump that accompanied a threat<\/a> to obliterate Iran\u2019s critical infrastructure, America and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire<\/a> late Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n Brokered by Pakistan, the deal offers a somewhat fragile break in warfare so that deeper negotiations between the nations involved can occur. The ceasefire reportedly includes agreements to suspend strikes in Iran for 14 days and allow for discussions of a settlement that includes nuclear constraints on Iran and sanctions relief, and the opening of the Strait of Hormuz for the entire duration of the truce.<\/p>\n \u201cWe welcome the ongoing ceasefire, and as the secretary said, we hope that Iran chooses a lasting peace,\u201d Caine noted. \u201cBut, as Secretary Hegseth said \u2014 let us be clear, a ceasefire is a pause, and the joint force remains ready if ordered or called upon to resume combat operations with the same speed and precision as we\u2019ve demonstrated over the last 38 days.\u201d<\/p>\n He and Hegseth described how Iran and Israel \u201cdecimated\u201d Iran\u2019s combat power since the start of Epic Fury.<\/p>\n They noted that the U.S. struck 13,000 targets, which included more than 4,000 dynamic targets that Caine said \u201cpopped up on the battlefield and were immediately addressed thanks to the exceptional command-and-control system and intelligence acumen and agility of our joint force.\u201d<\/p>\n U.S. Central Command \u201cdestroyed approximately 80% of Iran\u2019s air defense systems \u2014 striking more than 1,500 air defense targets, more than 450 ballistic missile storage facilities, 800 one-way-attack drone storage facilities \u2014 all of these systems are gone,\u201d Caine said.\u00a0<\/p>\n The top American military general also said the U.S. devastated Iran\u2019s command and control and logistical networks and destroyed more than 2,000 C2 nodes, adding that \u201cit is, and we know this, incredibly frustrating right now to be a lower-level Iranian commander trying to fight your fight.\u201d<\/p>\n Echoing Hegseth\u2019s claims that the Iranian Navy now lies mostly at the bottom of the Arabian Gulf, Caine said the U.S. has assessed that more than 90% of Iran\u2019s regular maritime fleet has now been sunk, and more than 95% of its naval mines have been eliminated.<\/p>\n According to the officials, every factory that produced Shahed one-way attack drones was hit, which should impact Iran\u2019s ability to make these low-cost weapons that it has used during the war and supplied to U.S. adversaries.<\/p>\n Iran\u2019s missile industry \u201cis shattered, with more than 80% of their missile facilities gone as well as their solid rocket motor production capability,\u201d Caine also said.\u00a0<\/p>\n He and Hegseth further estimated that it could take years for Iran to rebuild any major surface combatants, noting that more than 20 naval production and fabrication facilities were damaged or taken out, while nearly 80% of Iran\u2019s nuclear industrial base was hit.<\/p>\n \u201cIn last night\u2019s wave of more than 800 strikes, we finished completely destroying Iran\u2019s defense industrial base, a core pillar of our mission objectives. What little they have left buried in bunkers is all they will have,\u201d Hegseth said. \u201cBut they can no longer build missiles, build rockets, build launchers or build [unmanned aerial vehicles or] UAVs. Their factories have been razed to the ground, set back in historic fashion.\u201d<\/p>\n Responding to questions from DefenseScoop after the briefing on Wednesday regarding the senior U.S. officials\u2019 assertions about wiping out Iran\u2019s military power and capacity, experts suggested that the figures shared seem feasible, though imperfect.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause it\u2019s Gen. Caine, who is and has been pretty measured, I actually think he\u2019s got justification for giving those metrics,\u201d said a former senior defense official who requested anonymity to speak freely. \u201cNow, are they going to be perfect? They\u2019re not. They never will be, but I think they have a pretty good idea of the targets they\u2019ve struck.\u201d<\/p>\n The officials noted that more information will likely follow from Battle Damage Assessments, cyber reviews,\u00a0Munitions Effectiveness Assessments and other evaluations that are conducted in the immediate wake of combat operations.<\/p>\n \u201cSo on the surface of it, I actually think those numbers are reasonable. Of course, what they don\u2019t tell you is the rest of the story, which is, how many drones do they have hidden in mountains still, which is probably thousands? How many suicide boats do they have hidden in caves along the Strait of Hormuz \u2014 hundreds, maybe more?\u201d the former senior defense official said. \u201cSo there\u2019s always going to be a missing component to those numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n In their view, Iran can\u2019t rapidly rebuild its military arsenal in a way that\u2019s going to match America\u2019s conventional capability.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis is likely to only accelerate their move to drones, cheap drones \u2014 thousands and thousands of cheap drones, suicide boats, mines, and what we would call almost \u2018asymmetric warfare.\u2019 I continue to say that we\u2019re fighting one fight, and Iran is fighting an entirely different one, which is more of an economic war than it has been a conventional military fight,\u201d the former senior defense official told DefenseScoop.<\/p>\n They said they fully expect Iran will turn to Russia and China to figure out the types of capabilities they should rebuild to most threaten U.S. interests, \u201cknowing that they cannot send up airplanes against us and their navy can\u2019t go up against us.\u201d<\/p>\n Hegseth and Caine did not share an update Wednesday on U.S. casualties sustained in Epic Fury to date.\u00a0<\/p>\n According to Navy Capt. Tim Hawkins, U.S. Central Command\u2019s spokesperson, in total 381 U.S. troops were wounded in action as of April 8, with 344 having returned to duty and three currently characterized as seriously wounded.<\/p>\n
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