WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The head of the U.S. Central Command has told a Congressional panel that the American military forces have crippled Iran's military and its ability to project power with lethal strikes during the Middle East war.
Adm. Brad Cooper, CENTCOM commander, testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington as part of hearings related to force posture in the region and the command's portion of the fiscal year 2027 presidential budget request. The conversation on Capitol Hill focused largely on the successes of Operation Epic Fury, the code-name for the U.S. military operation against Iran.
'In less than 40 days, CENTCOM forces achieved our military objectives. Most notably, we degraded Iran's ability to project power outside its borders and threaten the region and threaten our interests,' Cooper said about the Operation that was launched in late February.
Cooper reminded lawmakers that in April and October of last year, Iran launched hundreds of missiles over Israel, but Iran no longer has that ability after U.S. forces effectively eliminated its conventional missile capacity.
'Today, Iran can no longer attack with that mass and scale. And further, with 90% of its defense industrial base destroyed, Iran won't be able to reconstitute those weapons for years,' he said.
President Donald Trump and other administration officials have stated that the Iranians will never have a nuclear weapon. So, military objectives as part of Epic Fury were designed to support that, including degrading Iran's ballistic missile capability and its navy, while also destroying the ability of the Iranian industrial base to reconstitute any of it. Cooper claimed that all of that have been achieved through Epic Fury.
'The defense industrial base for their drones and their missiles in their navy were degraded by 90%; they have about 10 percent left,' he told lawmakers. The Iranian navy will not begin to rebuild for five to 10 years, according to the CENTCOM commander.
Iran has been a direct threat, but it's also been an indirect threat, acting as a patron for terrorist proxies that carried out violence benefiting Iranian interests. That threat has been diminished greatly, Cooper said.
We watched Iran spend decades and billions of dollars arming proxies, he said, adding that Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis have been cut off from Iran's weapons supply and support because of the operation.
Cooper told lawmakers that, as of now, no resources or equipment are flowing from Iran to terrorist proxies. CENTCOM works with partners in the region regularly on shared security goals. The onset of Epic Fury revealed just how good some of those partners are, Cooper said, adding that the operation has been a benefit to those military relationships.
Cooper called out the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia as exceptional partners, while also commending Jordan and Israel for providing key support.
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