The U.S. military’s combat power in and around Iran is increasing as the war nears its weeklong mark, with Tehran’s capabilities diminishing, according to U.S. military leaders.
“U.S. combat power is building as Iranian combat power declines,” Adm. Brad Cooper, the commander of U.S. Central Command, said during a press briefing on Thursday afternoon. “Our air dominance allows us to hit Iran’s center of gravity with overwhelming power and reach.”
In response to the joint U.S. and Israeli attacks, which began Saturday, Iran has fired thousands of drones and hundreds of ballistic missiles at Israel and U.S. assets in several Gulf countries, though the attacks have diminished as the week has played out.
“Ballistic missile attacks have decreased by 90% since Day One, drone attacks have decreased by 83% since Day One,” Cooper said. “Having said this, we remain vigilant.”
U.S. forces have sunk or destroyed more than 30 ships belonging to the Iranian Navy, including an Iranian drone carrier that Cooper said was similar in size to a World War II aircraft carrier.
Simultaneously, B-2 bombers on Thursday dropped “dozens” of 2,000-pound penetrator bombs targeting “deeply buried ballistic missile launchers,” and they “struck Iran’s equivalent of Space Forces.” Cooper said, “We are at full speed ahead.”
War Secretary Pete Hegseth warned that Tehran’s hope that the United States “cannot sustain this” is a “really bad miscalculation for the IRGC in Iran,” and he added that “the amount of combat power that’s still flowing, that’s still coming, that we’ll be able to project over Iran is a multiples of what it currently is right now.”
The secretary, who was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan during both conflicts, said on Thursday that there are looser rules of engagement than in previous wars.
“We have no shortage of authorities, the admiral knows we have clear objectives with maximum authorities on the battlefield,” he said. “The dumb, politically correct wars of the past were the opposite of what we’re doing here. They had vague objectives with restrictive, minimalist rules of engagement. No more. Our authorities, his authorities, CENTCOM’s authorities, through the president and myself, are maxed out.”
The U.S. is investigating whether it was responsible for a strike in Minab, Iran, that hit an elementary school. Iranian media reported the death toll from the strike was roughly 175 people, mostly children.
Six American service members were killed in an Iranian drone attack in Kuwait on Sunday.
