AJ
Yesterday, CENTCOM Commander Admiral Brad Cooper published a video broadcast explaining the situational update in Iran.
“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,” Adm. Cooper began.
Adm. Cooper continued: “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 [Iraq] – 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.”
Explaining further, Adm. Cooper said: “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 defences 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 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 a ballistic missile in command-and-control posts.
“We are also sinking the Iranian Navy, we’ve destroyed 17 ships, including the most operational submarine that now has a hole in its side.
“For decades, the Iranian regime has harassed international shipping – today, there is 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 characterise as their lingering launch capability.
“Now, in retaliation, the Iranian regime has launched over 500 ballistic missiles and more than 2,000 drones.
“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.
“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 – my overall operational assessment i9s that we are ahead of our game plan.
“Along the way, every single branch of our military is achieving unprecedented success – our naval forces have deployed multiple waves of cruise missiles, obliterating Iranian command and control and air defence 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.
“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.
“In a historic first, the U.S. Army fired long-range precision strike missiles called “PrSM” in combat, providing an unrivalled 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.
“Our military objectives are crystal clear, and our people are executing an immensely complex and historic mission with relentless lethality, conviction, and professionalism.
“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.”
