Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Wednesday that U.S. and Israeli forces are moving rapidly toward full control of Iranian airspace as Operation Epic Fury continues to intensify.
Speaking during a Pentagon briefing, Hegseth said the United States Air Force, working alongside Israeli forces, expects to achieve uncontested dominance over Iran’s skies within days.
“Starting last night, and to be completed in a few days, in under a week, the two most powerful air forces in the world will have complete control of Iranian skies, uncontested airspace,” Hegseth said.
He explained that once that dominance is secured, allied aircraft will be able to operate around the clock targeting Iranian military infrastructure.
“It means we will fly all day, all night, day and night, finding, fixing, and finishing the missiles and defense industrial base of the Iranian military,” he added.
Hegseth emphasized that the scale of the operation is already exceeding previous conflicts, saying the United States has delivered twice the air power used during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
“They are toast, and they know it,” he said. “And we have only just begun to hunt, dismantle, demoralize, destroy, and defeat their capabilities.”
Once full air superiority is achieved, the campaign will shift toward widespread use of precision gravity bombs ranging from 500 to 2,000 pounds. Hegseth said the United States maintains a large stockpile of these GPS and laser-guided munitions.
“We used more exquisite standoff munitions at the start, but no longer need to,” he said. “Our stockpiles of those, as well as Patriots, remain extremely strong. We can sustain this fight easily for as long as we need to.”
His remarks come amid reports that some officials inside the Pentagon have raised concerns about U.S. munitions reserves if the conflict with Iran continues for an extended period.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine addressed those concerns more cautiously during the same briefing, declining to discuss exact quantities.
“We have sufficient precision munitions for the task at hand, both on the offense and defense,” Caine said. “As a matter of practice, I don’t want to be talking about quantities.”
Caine also provided an update on the scale of the operation so far. According to the Pentagon, U.S. forces have conducted roughly 2,000 strikes against Iranian targets and sunk approximately 20 Iranian naval vessels.
He added that Iranian retaliation appears to be weakening, with ballistic missile launches declining by 86% since the first day of fighting and drone attacks dropping by 76%.
Military officials say localized air superiority has already been achieved in some regions of Iranian airspace, signaling that the broader objective of total control may soon be within reach.
The post Hegseth Vows U.S. Will ‘Hunt, Dismantle, Demoralize, Destroy’ Iran’s Military appeared first on Real News Now.
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