The United States military has struck nearly 2,000 targets inside Iran in less than 100 hours, CENTCOM Commander Admiral Brad Cooper announced Tuesday, describing an operation unprecedented in scale and already reshaping the balance of power in the Middle East.
Cooper said the campaign, dubbed Operation Epic Fury, was ordered by President Donald Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. More than 50,000 troops, 200 fighter aircraft, and two aircraft carriers are executing the mission, which Cooper described as the largest U.S. military buildup in the Middle East in a generation.
The numbers alone tell a story. Nearly 2,000 targets hit. More than 2,000 munitions deployed. Hundreds of ballistic missiles, launchers, and drones destroyed. Seventeen Iranian ships sunk, including what Cooper called "the most operational Iranian submarine that now has a hole in its side." The Iranian Navy, he said, is being dismantled entirely.
According to the Israel National News, Cooper's briefing laid out an operation spanning every domain of modern warfare. In the opening hours, U.S. Central Command forces struck alongside Israel in what Cooper described as "overwhelming and unprecedented strikes into Iran." The tempo did not ease from there.
"The first 24 hours of this operation were nearly double the scale, and we continued with 24-7 strikes into Iran from seabed to space and cyberspace."
Cooper framed the operational logic in blunt terms:
"And in simple terms, we're focused on shooting all the things that can shoot at us."
That includes Iran's missile facilities deep inside the country, its naval fleet, and its drone infrastructure. Cooper noted that some of the drones used in the campaign carry a particular irony.
"These drones were originally an Iranian design. We took them back to America, made them better, and fired them right back at Iran."
The result, according to Cooper: not a single Iranian ship remains underway in the Arabian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz, or the Gulf of Oman. For a regime that has harassed international shipping for decades, that is a significant new reality.
Iran has not absorbed these strikes quietly. Cooper said the regime has responded by launching more than 500 ballistic missiles and more than 2,000 drones. But his characterization of how Iran is fighting back deserves attention.
"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."
This distinction matters. The U.S. campaign, as Cooper described it, is targeting military infrastructure: missile sites, launchers, naval vessels, drone capabilities. Iran's response, by his account, is aimed at civilians. The two approaches are not morally equivalent, and Cooper clearly intended to draw that line.
Cooper also acknowledged the human cost on the American side. He opened his briefing with condolences for service members killed in action and prayers for the wounded, though he did not provide specific numbers or details. Those losses deserve recognition. Every operation of this magnitude carries risk, and American families are bearing it.
"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."
What stands out most in Cooper's briefing is not just the scale of the operation but the posture behind it. This is not a limited strike designed to "send a message." It is not a proportional response calibrated to satisfy editorial boards. It is a sustained campaign aimed at the systematic destruction of Iran's military capacity.
Cooper described the two most powerful air forces in the world, those of the United States and Israel, "dominating the skies of the world's largest state sponsor of terror." He assessed that the operation is ahead of its game plan. And he made clear that the campaign is far from over.
"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."
For nearly half a century, Iran has operated as both a state sponsor of terrorism and a destabilizing force across the region, building proxy networks, threatening shipping lanes, and developing missile programs designed to hold its neighbors hostage. The foreign policy establishment spent decades managing that threat through sanctions, negotiations, and carefully worded communiqués. None of it changed the regime's trajectory.
The strategic implications here extend well beyond the immediate battlefield. Iran's naval capacity is being erased in real time. Its missile infrastructure is under continuous assault. Its air defenses are, by Cooper's account, unable to prevent what he described as uncontested surgical strikes deep inside the country. Every hour that passes without a credible Iranian military response to the air campaign reinforces the gap between the regime's rhetoric and its actual capabilities.
The coalition executing this operation includes Israel and unspecified partners. The partnership with Israel is notable not just militarily but symbolically. Two nations that Iran has threatened with annihilation are now jointly disassembling their ability to make good on those threats.
Cooper's briefing was confident but not triumphalist. He acknowledged losses. He outlined objectives. He described progress in concrete, verifiable terms: ships sunk, targets struck, missiles destroyed. That kind of specificity is what separates a real operational update from political theater.
Less than 100 hours in, and the world's largest state sponsor of terror has no navy left at sea. The operation continues.