THE MIDDLE EAST WAR UPDATE: Update from CENTCOM Commander on Operation Epic Fury:

THE MIDDLE EAST WAR UPDATE: Update from CENTCOM Commander on Operation Epic Fury:

“Good afternoon. I’m Admiral Brad Cooper, the Commander of United States Central Command. In this capacity, I lead U.S. military forces in the Middle East. I’m here to provide you an update on Operation Epic Fury, now in our fourth day of execution. First, I’d like to express my deepest condolences to the families and teammates of the extraordinary Americans who have been killed in action, and I’d also like to extend our prayers for a speedy recovery to the wounded. Yesterday, you heard from Secretary Higseth and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Today, I’d like to give you an operational update on where we are and provide you with some key facts.

By order of the President of the United States and the Secretary of War, our military in the Middle East is undertaking an unprecedented operation to eliminate Iran’s ability to threaten Americans as they’ve been doing for nearly half a century. Having spent more than 36 years in the military, I could not be prouder of America’s sons and daughters in uniform who are answering the call. More than 50,000 troops, 200 fighters, two aircraft carriers, and bombers from the United States are participating in this operation, and more capability is on the way. These forces bring a massive amount of firepower, representing the largest buildup by the U.S. in the Middle East in a generation. In the opening hours of Operation Epic Fury, U.S. Central Command forces, together with Israel, delivered overwhelming and unprecedented strikes into Iran. Many of you may remember the shock and awe strikes of 2003. The first 24 hours of this operation were nearly double the scale, and we continue with 24/7 strikes into Iran from seabed to space and cyberspace.

Now, we’re less than 100 hours into this operation, and we’ve already struck nearly 2,000 targets with more than 2,000 munitions. We have severely degraded Iran’s air defenses and destroyed hundreds of Iran’s ballistic missiles, launchers, and drones. And in simple terms, we’re focused on shooting all the things that can shoot at us. Our B-2 bombers and B-1 bombers have executed uncontested surgical strikes against multiple missile facilities deep inside Iran. And then just last night, a B-52 bomber force struck ballistic missile and command-and-control posts. We are also sinking the Iranian Navy—the entire Navy. Thus far, we’ve destroyed 17 Iranian ships, including the most operational Iranian submarine that now has a hole in its side. For decades, the Iranian regime has harassed international shipping. Today, there’s not a single Iranian ship underway in the Arabian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz, or Gulf of Oman. And we will not stop. We will continue to conduct dynamic targeting operations.

We’re hunting Iran’s last remaining mobile ballistic missile launchers to eliminate what I would characterize as their lingering launch capability. Now, in retaliation, the Iranian regime has launched over 500 ballistic missiles and over 2,000 drones. To be clear, Iran is indiscriminately targeting civilians as they’ve launched these missiles and drones. You’ve seen it on TV; the evidence is crystal clear and overwhelming. Having said this, we are seeing Iran’s ability to hit us and our partners is declining, while our combat power, on the other hand, is building. And my overall operational assessment is that we are ahead of our game plan. Along the way, every single branch of our military is achieving unprecedented success. I’ll talk about just a few of them.

Our naval forces have deployed multiple waves of cruise missiles, obliterating Iranian command and control and air defense capabilities. From two aircraft carrier strike groups, we’re squeezing Iran from the sea and have them backed into their own ports. U.S. Air Forces are doing what they do best—executing a high volume of airstrikes right into Iran. Operationally, the two most powerful air forces in the world, the U.S. and Israel, are dominating the skies over the world’s largest state sponsor of terror. Our U.S. Army soldiers are defending ourselves and our partners, and in a historic first, the U.S. Army fired long-range precision strike missiles called PrSMs in combat, providing an unrivaled deep strike capability. Also for the first time, U.S. Central Command’s drone task force, called Task Force Scorpion Strike, launched countless one-way attack drones, achieving massive effects. I’d like to point out, these drones were originally an Iranian design. We took them back to America, made them better, and fired them right back at Iran. I just could not be prouder of our men and women in uniform, leveraging innovation to create dilemmas for the enemy.

There is no adversary too determined, no mission too difficult, for the great soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, Guardians, and Coast Guardsmen that make up the most powerful military the world has ever seen. Our military objectives are crystal clear, and our people are executing an immensely complex and historic mission with relentless lethality, conviction, and professionalism. And we’ve just begun. But I have the utmost confidence that we, alongside our partners, will absolutely achieve our military objectives. To all our warriors, Godspeed.

Thanks so much.”