{"id":6548,"date":"2026-03-06T12:27:41","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T12:27:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/6548\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T12:27:41","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T12:27:41","slug":"us-has-destroyed-iranian-drone-carrier-centcom-commander-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/6548\/","title":{"rendered":"US has destroyed Iranian \u2018drone carrier,\u2019 CENTCOM commander says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Central Command, said Thursday that Iran\u2019s navy has been decimated and its drone capabilities damaged, as the United States and Israel continues military strikes against Iran.<\/p>\n

Cooper spoke alongside Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at CENTCOM headquarters at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, providing updates regarding Operation Epic Fury, which began early Saturday morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re now up over 30 ships,\u201d Cooper said of the number of Iranian navy vessels that the U.S. has sunk or destroyed. \u201cAnd in just the last few hours, we hit an Iranian drone carrier ship roughly the size of a World War II aircraft carrier, and as we speak, it\u2019s on fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

RELATED\"\"<\/p>\n

U.S. combat power has continued to ramp up while Iran\u2019s combat power has declined, according to Cooper.<\/p>\n

In the last 72 hours, American bombers have struck nearly 200 targets deep inside Iran, including around Tehran, Cooper said. And in the last hour, U.S. B-2 bombers dropped dozens of 2,000-pound penetrative bombs on buried ballistic missile launchers.<\/p>\n

The U.S. has also struck Iran\u2019s \u201cequivalent of Space Command,\u201d Cooper said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe amount of firepower over Iran and over Tehran is about to surge dramatically,\u201d Hegseth said. \u201cWhen we say more to come, it\u2019s more fighter squadrons, it\u2019s more capabilities, it\u2019s more defensive capabilities and it\u2019s more bomber pulses more frequently.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s military offensive campaign has slowed considerably, too, according to Cooper.<\/p>\n

He said the country\u2019s ballistic missile attacks have decreased by 90% since day one and drone attacks have decreased by 83% since day one.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump gave CENTCOM the task of leveling Iran\u2019s ballistic missile industrial base, according to Cooper.<\/p>\n

The U.S. military is in the process of dismantling Iran\u2019s missile production capability for the future, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not just hitting what they have,\u201d Cooper said. \u201cWe\u2019re destroying their ability to rebuild.\u201d<\/p>\n

Riley Ceder is a reporter at Military Times, where he covers breaking news, criminal justice, investigations, and cyber. He previously worked as an investigative practicum student at The Washington Post, where he contributed to the Abused by the Badge investigation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Central Command, said Thursday that Iran\u2019s navy has been decimated and its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6549,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2290,141,1529,1528,4141,4140,34,1488,1531,212,772],"class_list":{"0":"post-6548","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-iran","8":"tag-brad-cooper","9":"tag-centcom","10":"tag-circulated-military-times","11":"tag-circulated-navy-times","12":"tag-combat","13":"tag-drone-carrier","14":"tag-iran","15":"tag-navy","16":"tag-navy-times","17":"tag-operation-epic-fury","18":"tag-pete-hegseth"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116182230586323058","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}