US Military Strikes Iranian Drone Carrier, Igniting Vessel in High-Stakes Gulf Tensions

The U.S. military launched a significant strike on an Iranian drone carrier ship on Thursday, setting it ablaze as part of ongoing efforts to weaken Iran’s naval capabilities through a series of missile and bomb attacks.

During a press briefing on Thursday, U.S. Central Command (Centcom) Commander Adm. Brad Cooper described the targeted vessel as comparable in size to a World War II-era aircraft carrier, noting, “At this moment, it is engulfed in flames.”

The conflict escalated on Saturday when Centcom confirmed that its forces had targeted Iran’s drone carrier, IRIS Shahid Bagheri, amidst a sequence of airstrikes.

Admiral Cooper highlighted the increased intensity of U.S. military actions against the Iranian navy, reporting that over 30 of Tehran’s warships have been neutralized. He further stated that U.S. bombers have struck nearly 200 strategic targets within Iran, including the capital, Tehran, in just the past hour.

According to Cooper, Iran’s offensive operations have significantly declined, with a 90 percent reduction in ballistic missile attacks and an 83 percent decrease in drone strikes since hostilities commenced.

“Having said this, we remain vigilant,” he told reporters. 

The stealth B-2 bombers dropped “dozens” of 2,000-pound penetrator bombs onto Iran’s “deeply buried” ballistic missile launchers and the U.S. forces also struck Tehran’s equivalent of Space Command, “which degrades their ability to threaten Americans,” Cooper said. 

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, standing alongside Cooper in at the Centcom headquarters in Tampa, Fla., said the amount of U.S. firepower over Iran is about to “surge dramatically” with the ability of the U.S. military to do more basing not just at British bases, but other regional allies. 

“We’ve had other friends step up, and we’re grateful for that,” the Pentagon chief said. 

The updates from Hegseth and Cooper come as the war has widened with the U.S. and Israel continuing to hit targets inside Iran, while Iran has continued to retaliate by targeting U.S. interests in the region and Israel with swarms of drones and ballistic missiles. 

As a result, Gulf states, including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and others, have been detecting and shooting down incoming Iranian drones, although some have pierced through, causing damage. 

Cooper said on Thursday that Trump gave the U.S. military another task: to raise or level Iran’s ballistic missile industrial base. 

“So we’re not just hitting what they have, we’re destroying their ability to rebuild,” Cooper said, later adding that “this is going to take some time, but our forces are well supplied.”