CENTCOM Commander Admiral Brad Cooper stated Wednesday that U.S. forces have struck more than 10,000 targets inside Iran since the conflict began on February 28, and have damaged or destroyed more than two-thirds of Iran's missiles, drone, and naval production facilities and shipyards. "Today, we have damaged or destroyed over two-thirds of Iran's missile, drone, and naval production facilities and shipyards, and we're not done yet," Cooper said. Approximately 92% of Iran's largest naval vessels have been sunk or disabled, effectively eliminating Iran's ability to project maritime power in the Gulf and enforce its threatened blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. The Times of Israel and Fox News both confirmed Cooper's statement in live-war coverage Wednesday.
Cooper also noted that B-52 strategic bombers have been conducting missions delivering up to 70,000 pounds of munitions per sortie against Iran — among the heaviest conventional bombing runs in modern American military history. The pace of Iranian retaliatory missile and drone attacks on U.S. and Israeli positions has fallen by approximately 90% since the conflict's opening days, when Iran launched hundreds of ballistic missiles per day. Cooper attributed the reduction to the systematic destruction of Iran's weapons production and stockpile infrastructure rather than Iran choosing tactical restraint.
The military briefing came the same day Trump transmitted a 15-point peace plan to Iranian officials through Pakistan, creating an unusual simultaneity of maximum military pressure and active diplomatic outreach. Trump said on the White House lawn that Iran "will never have a nuclear weapon," calling that commitment Iran's "number one" concession. Cooper's assessment of degraded Iranian military capability — if accurate — would strengthen Trump's negotiating position by demonstrating that Iran has less remaining leverage than it did at the war's start.
Analysts cautioned that CENTCOM's self-reported figures are difficult to independently verify and that Iran retains some offensive capacity including dispersed missile stockpiles and underground facilities not fully accounted for in the public tally. Fox News covered the briefing approvingly, framing it as evidence of military success; NPR coverage of the broader Iran war context noted that international law experts are reviewing the targeting of industrial facilities under the laws of armed conflict, given their potential dual civilian-military use.
Left-Leaning Emphasis
- NPR and left-leaning outlets noted the legal uncertainty around targeting Iranian arms production facilities under the laws of armed conflict, questioning whether dual-use industrial sites are legitimate military targets under the Geneva Conventions.
- CBS News coverage included caveats about the impossibility of independently verifying CENTCOM's self-reported figures, noting that the U.S. military has historically overstated battle damage assessments in previous conflicts.
Right-Leaning Emphasis
- Fox News covered Cooper's briefing as a straightforward military success story, emphasizing the 90% reduction in Iranian attack capacity and the B-52's 70,000-pound sortie loads as evidence that maximum military pressure is working.
- Right-leaning coverage treated the statistics as vindicating the decision to go to war — Iran's offensive capability has been substantially degraded in less than a month, making a ceasefire deal more achievable on U.S. terms.
Sources
- Times of Israel Mar 25
- Fox News Mar 25
- CBS News Mar 25
- Stars and Stripes Mar 25