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Admiral Brad Cooper, who leads the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), announced on Wednesday that American military forces targeted nearly 2,000 sites in Iran within the first 100 hours of a mission called Operation Epic Fury.
“Our forces in the Middle East have embarked on an unprecedented mission to dismantle Iran’s capacity to pose threats to Americans, a situation that has persisted for nearly 50 years,” Cooper explained in a video update shared on the social media platform X.
He detailed that the operation involved more than “50,000 troops, 200 fighter jets, two aircraft carriers, and bombers,” marking “the most significant U.S. military buildup in the Middle East in recent decades.”
Cooper compared the operation’s scale to the “shock and awe” campaign of 2003, stating, “The first 24 hours were effectively twice the size of that campaign, and our efforts continue with relentless, round-the-clock strikes on Iran, spanning from seabed to space and into cyberspace.”
The CENTCOM leader outlined that the initial phase of Operation Epic Fury focused on “drastically reducing” Iran’s air defense systems and ballistic missile capabilities. He also confirmed the destruction of Iran’s “entire naval forces.”
“We have severely degraded Iran’s air defenses and destroyed hundreds of Iran’s ballistic missiles, launchers and drones. In simple terms, we’re focused on shooting all the things that can shoot at us,” he said.
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Cooper mentioned the deployment of B-52 bombers to attack Iran’s ballistic missile and command infrastructure– a remarkable demonstration of the success of the operation to strip away Iran’s air defenses, since the massive and aging B-52s would have difficulty operating against modern anti-aircraft defenses. The first version of the B-52 entered service in 1952.
“U.S. air forces are doing what they do best, executing a high volume of air strikes right into Iran. Operationally, the two most powerful air forces in the world, the U.S. and Israel, are dominating the skies of the world’s largest state sponsor of terror,” he said.
Cooper said U.S. forces would “continue to conduct dynamic targeting operations or hunting Iran’s last remaining mobile ballistic missile launchers,” in order to eliminate what he described as Iran’s “lingering launch capability.” He noted Iran is using that capability to deliberately attack civilian targets across the Middle East.
“To be clear, Iran is indiscriminately targeting civilians, as they launch these missiles and drones. You’ve seen it on TV, the evidence is crystal clear and overwhelming,” he said.
“My overall operational assessment is that we are ahead of our gameplan,” he concluded.
Although there has been considerable media anxiety about Iran’s missile inventory supposedly outlasting the ability of U.S. and allied forces to intercept terror launches against civilian targets, an unnamed Western official told the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on Wednesday that the volume of Iranian missile launches is steeply declining, and Iran may only have “several more days of firepower” remaining.
“The enemy can no longer shoot the volume of missiles they once did, not even close. Our air defenses and that of our allies have plenty of runway. We can sustain this fight easily for as long as we need to,” Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said on Wednesday.
“We are accelerating, not decelerating. Iran’s capabilities are evaporating by the hour while US strength grows fiercer, smarter, and more dominant. America is winning, decisively, and without mercy,” he said.
“Iran’s theater ballistic missile shots fired down 86% from the first day of fighting, with a 23% decrease just in the last 24 hours, and their one way attack drone shots are down 73% from the opening days,” said Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, appearing at the press conference with Hegseth.