More than 30 Iranian ships have been sunk or destroyed. Ballistic missile attacks are down 90 percent. An Iranian drone carrier the size of a World War II aircraft carrier is burning in the water right now. And according to U.S. officials, the campaign is still accelerating.
Speaking at U.S. Central Command headquarters at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and CENTCOM Commander Admiral Brad Cooper delivered a picture of a military operation moving with speed and precision. Operation Epic Fury has, in a matter of days, rendered the bulk of Iran's navy combat ineffective and begun stripping away the missile infrastructure Iran has spent years building.
The numbers are not ambiguous. Cooper confirmed the updated tally directly:
You may have heard the president say just a little while ago that we have sunk or destroyed 24 ships. That was true. At the moment, we're now up over 30 ships.
That figure climbed while officials were still speaking. The operation is not winding down. It is widening.
The reduction in Iranian offensive capability since the first day of the operation is dramatic by any measure, Fox News reported. Cooper put it plainly: ballistic missile attacks have dropped 90 percent since day one, and drone attacks have fallen 83 percent. Those aren't projections. Those are the results of strikes already completed.
Among the most significant actions in the most recent hours before the briefing, U.S. forces struck an Iranian drone carrier ship that Cooper described as "roughly the size of a World War II aircraft carrier." His description of its status was not past tense:
In just the last few hours, we hit an Iranian drone carrier ship roughly the size of a World War II aircraft carrier. And, as we speak, it's on fire.
Iran has positioned drone warfare as a cornerstone of its regional strategy, using low-cost, mass-produced weapons to threaten shipping lanes, U.S. assets, and American allies. That carrier represented significant capacity. Now it is sinking.
Hegseth credited the military forces executing the campaign and made clear the operation's scope is not yet fully deployed:
In just days of Operation Epic Fury, you and your team have delivered nothing short of devastating, precise strikes taking out the better part of Iran's navy, making it combat ineffective, neutralizing missile sites and launchers and establishing total dominance over the skies.
This is where the operation shifts from reactive to structural. Destroying equipment matters. Destroying the capacity to replace that equipment matters more.
Cooper signaled that transition directly:
We're not just hitting what they have. We're destroying their ability to rebuild.
As the campaign moves into its next phase, the focus turns to Iran's missile production infrastructure. The goal, as Cooper stated it, is to "systemically dismantle Iran's missile production capability for the future." That framing treats the operation not as a strike campaign but as a strategic reset, one designed to degrade Iran's offensive potential for years, not just weeks.
That distinction matters. Past U.S. administrations engaged Iran through negotiation frameworks that left its weapons programs intact and its regional proxies funded. The current approach starts from the other direction: degrade first, then define what comes next from a position of strength.
Hegseth made clear that what has been deployed so far is not the ceiling. Additional combat power is moving toward the region, and the timeline belongs entirely to the United States.
Our munitions are full up and our will is ironclad, which means our timeline is ours and ours alone to control as long as it takes to ensure the United States of America achieves these objectives.
He elaborated on the scale still in motion:
The amount of combat power that's still flowing, that's still coming, that we'll be able to project over Iran is multiples of what it currently is right now.
This is not a message intended only for the American public. Tehran is watching this briefing too. The signal is deliberate: what Iran has already absorbed is a fraction of what the United States is prepared to deliver, and the decision of when to stop rests with Washington, not with Iran's willingness to absorb punishment.
Hegseth confirmed that American and Israeli capabilities are operating in alignment, noting that U.S. forces are not acting alone in the region. "Our capabilities are overwhelming and gathering still, as are those of our Israeli partners," he said. That coordination adds another dimension to Iran's strategic calculus. It is not managing pressure from one direction. It is managing coordinated, simultaneous pressure from multiple capable partners, while its navy burns and its missile launch numbers crater.
For years, Iran operated under the assumption that its provocations carried manageable costs. It could arm proxies, threaten shipping, fire ballistic missiles, and watch the international community cycle through the same set of diplomatic responses. The threat of serious military consequence remained theoretical.
Operation Epic Fury is ending that assumption.
Over 30 ships destroyed. Air superiority established. Missile attacks down 90 percent. A drone carrier burning in the water. And the United States publicly announcing that the next phase targets Iran's ability to ever rebuild what it has lost. Hegseth closed the briefing with words that carry both strategic and symbolic weight:
We have only just begun to fight and fight decisively.
Iran spent decades building a military deterrent designed to make confrontation too costly for any adversary to attempt. Operation Epic Fury is dismantling that deterrent in real time, and the men overseeing it are making no effort to conceal what they are doing or why.
The operation continues.
