U.S. forces have spent three weeks striking Iran’s military apparatus, claiming large-scale damage to naval, air, and missile capabilities while leaders promise continued pressure until core objectives are met.

Twenty-two days into combat operations, U.S. officials report hitting over 8,000 military targets, destroying 130 Iranian naval vessels, and flying more than 8,000 combat sorties over Iranian skies. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth stated plainly, “We’re winning decisively and on our terms.” These figures frame a campaign that its architects say is meant to break Tehran’s ability to project force.

The operation, called Operation Epic Fury, began at the end of February after a joint U.S.-Israeli assault that reportedly killed Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei. Senior commanders now describe Iran’s military as not only degraded but in collapse, citing dramatic declines in missile and drone launches and the loss of submarines and surface ships. Ballistic missile attacks on U.S. forces are said to be down 90 percent, and one-way attack drone launches have fallen by a similar margin.

Admiral Brad Cooper framed the situation starkly, saying, “Their navy is not sailing, their tactical fighters are not flying, and they have lost the ability to launch missiles and drones at high rates seen at the beginning of the conflict. Our progress is obvious.” Commanders highlight examples such as the longest field artillery strike in Army combat history and repeated strikes on Iran’s defense industrial base as evidence of sustained pressure. Officials emphasize the campaign is not a single strike followed by talks but a steady, escalating effort to remove Iran’s regional reach.

Leaders describe a focus on crippling factories, missile production lines, and the logistics networks that allow Tehran to arm proxies across the region. “We’re hunting and striking death and destruction from above. Iran’s air defenses — flattened. Iran’s defense industrial base, the factories, the production lines that feed their missile and drone programs — being overwhelmingly destroyed. We’ve hit hundreds of their defense industrial bases directly.” That language reflects a deliberate campaign to attack infrastructure rather than merely respond to individual provocations.

In the vital Strait of Hormuz, commanders say strikes removed hardened underground sites used to hide anti-ship cruise missiles and mobile launchers that threatened international shipping. “The Iranian regime used the hardened underground facility to discreetly store anti-ship cruise missiles, mobile missile launchers, and other equipment that presented a dangerous risk to international shipping.” Destroying radar relays and intelligence nodes, officials add, is meant to end Tehran’s ability to choke off global trade lanes.

President Trump signaled a change in thinking about burden sharing, writing that guarding the Strait “it shouldn’t be necessary once Iran’s threat is eradicated.” That reflects a policy shift from indefinite guardianship of shipping lanes to a task-oriented fix and a prompt for regional partners to assume more responsibility. U.S. planners say the aim is to dismantle the leverage Iran has wielded over global commerce for decades.

Tehran’s public denials about its missile program have been challenged by recent events. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called reports of longer-range missiles “misinformation” and said Iran had “intentionally limited” its systems to ranges under 2,000 kilometers. Weeks later, Tehran launched intermediate-range missiles at an island base in the Indian Ocean roughly 2,500 miles away, suggesting the regime’s capabilities exceed its official claims and raising fresh alarms about outreach beyond the region.

Commanders also point to the pressure placed on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Basij, arguing leadership losses have hollowed those organizations’ command structures. “The last job anyone in the world wants right now: senior leader for the IRGC or Basij — temp jobs, all of them. And to borrow a page from Admiral Ernest King in World War II, we’ve decided to share the ocean with Iran. We’ve given them the bottom half.” Eliminating senior leaders, officials say, severs the link between Tehran’s political aims and the groups that execute proxy operations.

K.T. McFarland assessed the strategic payoff bluntly: “Iran is militarily finished. No air force. No navy. The senior leadership of the Revolutionary Guard gone.” She added, “I look at the bigger picture, the great news is that President Trump has bought us at least a decade of freedom from the nuclear threat from Iran. So even if he declared victory today, he could walk away and say … ‘We don’t have a nuclear threat. Their army, their navy, their air force, their missile production capabilities, we have set them back at least a decade to rebuild that.’ So we bought peace for a decade.” That time horizon is presented as the operational objective achieved through force.

Officials insist the campaign’s broad objectives remain unchanged and focused on degrading Iran’s military reach and protecting regional partners. Trump summarized five core goals that guide the strikes:

• Completely degrading Iranian missile capability, launchers, and everything pertaining to them
• Destroying Iran’s defense industrial base
• Eliminating their navy and air force, including anti-aircraft weaponry
• Never allowing Iran to get close to nuclear capability
• Protecting Middle Eastern allies, including Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Kuwait

Hegseth reiterated the consistency of that plan: “Our objectives, given directly from our America-first president, remain exactly what they were on day one. These are not the media’s objectives, not Iran’s objectives, not new objectives. Our objectives, unchanged, on target and on plan.” With commanders reporting a 90 percent reduction in offensive missile and drone activity, and significant naval and air losses, U.S. leaders say the campaign is moving toward those goals while weighing the timing of any drawdown.