(U.S. Department of War Transcript, March 4, 2026)
SECRETARY HEGSETH: Well, good morning. I stand before you today with one unmistakable message about Operation Epic Fury: America is winning decisively, devastatingly and without mercy. Under the direct command of President Trump, the War Department unleashed this operation early Saturday morning, just four days ago, which means we need to remember two things.
First, we are only four days into this. Metrics are shifting, dust is settling, and more forces are arriving. It’s very early. And as President Trump has said, we will take all the time we need to make sure that we succeed.
Second, we are only four days into this, and the results have been incredible, historic really. Only the United States of America could lead this, only us. But when you add the Israeli Defense Forces, a devastatingly capable force, the combination is sheer destruction for our radical Islamist Iranian adversaries. They are toast and they know it, or at least soon enough they will know it. And we have only just begun to hunt, dismantle, demoralize, destroy and defeat their capabilities just four days in.
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. I hope all the folks watching understand what uncontested airspace and complete control means. 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, finding and fixing their leaders and their military leaders, flying over Tehran, flying over Iran, flying over their capital, flying over the IRGC , Iranian leaders looking up and seeing only US and Israeli air power every minute of every day until we decide it’s over.
And Iran will be able to do nothing about it. B-2s, B-52s, B-1s, Predator drones, fighters controlling the skies, picking targets, death and destruction from the sky all day long. We’re playing for keeps. Our warfighters have maximum authorities granted personally by the president and yours truly.
Our rules of engagement are bold, precise and designed to unleash American power, not shackle it. This was never meant to be a fair fight, and it is not a fair fight. We are punching them while they’re down, which is exactly how it should be. Thus far, Operation Epic Fury has delivered twice the air power of shock and awe of Iraq in 2003, minus Paul Bremer and the Nation Building.
The campaign has seven times the intensity of Israel’s previous operations against Iran during the 12-day war, seven times. And as President Trump said, more and larger waves are coming; we are just getting started. We are accelerating, not decelerating. Iran’s capabilities are evaporating by the hour. While American strength grows, fiercer smarter and utterly dominant.
More bombers and more fighters are arriving just today. And now with complete control of the skies, we will be using 500-pound, 1,000-pound and 2,000-pound GPS and laser-guided precision gravity bombs of which we have a nearly unlimited stockpile. We used more exquisite standoff munitions at the start but no longer need to. Our stockpiles of those as well as Patriot’s remains extremely strong.
The enemy can no longer shoot the volume of missiles they once did, not even close, and the chairman will lay out some of those percentages. So, our air defenses and that of our allies have plenty of runway. We can sustain this fight easily for as long as we need to. And as I said yesterday, we set the terms.
Now you may not see much of it because the IRGC shut off the internet to the entirety of the country. They blind their people on purpose, just like they kill their own on purpose. Much was made of the volume of missiles Iran was able to shoot in the first few days and sadly, as we projected, a few got through and killed six of our best who will hopefully arrive home soon. We will avenge them, no doubt.
But I liken Iran’s predicament to a football team who scripted the first 20 plays of a game. The team knew what plays to run because their first few drives were scripted. But now that the game has started and the blitz is on, they don’t know what plays to call, let alone how to get in the huddle and call those plays.
Iran’s senior leaders are dead, the so-called governing council that might have selected a successor, dead, missing or cowering in bunkers, too terrified to even occupy the same room. Senior generals, mid-level officers, enlisted ranks, they can’t talk or communicate, let alone mount a coordinated and sustained offensive. That’s not great for morale.
The Iranian Air Force is no more, built for 1996, destroyed in 2026. The Iranian navy rests at the bottom of the Persian Gulf, combat ineffective, decimated, destroyed, defeated, pick your adjective. In fact, last night we sunk their prized ship, the Soleimani. Looks like POTUS got him twice.
Their navy, not a factor. Pick your adjective, it is no more. In fact, yesterday in the Indian Ocean, and we’ll play it on the screen there, an American submarine sunk an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters. Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo, quiet death. The first sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo since World War II.
Like in that war back when we were still the War Department, we are fighting to win. Also, yesterday, the leader of the unit who attempted to assassinate President Trump has been hunted down and killed. Iran tried to kill President Trump and President Trump got the last laugh. Now, this is not a mission accomplished situation.
This is simply a reality check. The combination of US and Israeli intelligence and combat power will control Iran and will control it soon. Sure, Iran will still be able to shoot some missiles and still be able to launch one-way attack drones at civilian targets and their proxies will attempt to attack our embassies, bases and soft targets.
They are terrorists after all and they need to target civilians, because they can’t fight toe-to-toe. But we will find them, and we will kill them. This is what the fake news misses. We’ve taken control of Iran’s airspace and waterways without boots on the ground. We control their fate. But when a few drones get through or tragic things happen, it’s front-page news.
I get it, the press only wants to make the president look bad – but try for once to report the reality. The terms of this war will be set by us at every step. As I said Monday, the mission is laser-focused, obliterate Iran’s missiles and drones and facilities that produce them, annihilate its navy and critical security infrastructure and sever their pathway to nuclear weapons.
Iran will never possess a nuclear bomb, not on our watch, not ever. And this is why President Trump’s moral clarity on Iran today is so vital. Unlike the past, where vague red lines and endless negotiations let Iran fund terror and inch ever so slightly toward a bomb, this president sees the threat plainly and acts decisively, no more half measures, especially when Iran is at its weakest. No more letting Tehran play for time while our people pay the price.
His leadership ensures that we finish what we start and that we protect our warfighters by crushing the enemy before they can strike again. Our offensive operations refined through months of relentless preparation are unstoppable and our defensive efforts are unprecedented.
We have, from the start, put the protection of our troops ahead of everything else. Before we very publicly built up offensive combat power, we quietly ensured that our defensive posture and power was in place. And as we built up offensive combat power, we moved the vast majority of American troops, over 90 percent of Americans that were on our bases, what we say off the X, out of the range of Iranian fire.
Our defensive shield is equally formidable, the most sophisticated air and missile defense network ever fielded. Thousands of Iranian missiles and drones have been intercepted and vaporized, tens of thousands of American and allied lives protected. We have pushed every counter UAS system possible forward sparing no expense or capability.
And like I said, this does not mean we can stop everything, but we ensured that the maximum possible defense and maximum possible force protection was set up before we went on offense. In closing, as President Trump told German Chancellor Mertz yesterday, Iran negotiated in bad faith, stalling, scheming and preparing to strike.
And we acted decisively to defend our people, our interests and our allies. President Trump took bold action, putting America first, the kind of bold action that the American people elected him to execute. To our steadfast partner, Israel, your mission is being executed with unmatched skill and iron determination.
Fighting shoulder to shoulder with such a capable ally is a true force multiplier and a breath of fresh air. We salute your courage and your contribution. Four days in, we have only just begun to fight. America fights to win, and in Operation Epic Fury, we are. May God’s providence cover and protect our troops always. And with that, I turn it over to the Chairman.
GENERAL CAINE: Thank you, Mr. Secretary, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for being here. I’m here today to provide the American people and those of you in this room an update on Operation Epic Fury. First, it’s with profound sadness and gratitude that I share the names of four of our six fallen heroes, all from the 103rd Sustainment Command US Army Reserves out of Des Moines, Iowa; Capt. Cody Khork; Sgt. 1st Class Noah Tietjens; Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Amor; and Sgt. Declan Coady. To the families of our fallen, we grieve with you today and we look forward to welcoming your family members home at Dover in the coming days.
Out of respect for the other families, we’ll withhold the release of their names until next-of-kin notification is complete, and either myself or Adm. Cooper will release those names as soon as we can ensure that all of those families have been properly notified. To our Gold Star families, to our wounded warriors and their loved ones, we will never forget your sacrifice. Our nation stands with you, and we are eternally grateful for your courage, your resiliency, your devotion to this mission and to our nation.
As the Secretary said, we’re four days in, 103 hours into this campaign. The operation was, again, launched with clear military objectives designed to dismantle Iran’s ability to project power outside of its borders both today and in the future.
First, we are targeting and eliminating Iran’s ballistic missile systems to prevent them from threatening the U.S. forces, partners and interests in the region. Second, we are destroying the Iranian Navy, degrading its capacity, capability and ability to conduct operations not just in the Central Command AOR but, as the Secretary showed in the video, around the world. Third, we’re ensuring Iran cannot rapidly rebuild or reconstitute its combat capability or combat power, and those phases will begin as the campaign continues.
As of this morning, U.S. Central Command is making steady progress. Iran’s theater ballistic missile shots fired are down 86 percent from the first day of fighting, with a 23 percent decrease just in the last 24 hours, and their one-way attack drone shots are down 73 percent from the opening days.
This progress has allowed CENTCOM to establish localized air superiority across the southern flank of the Iranian coast and penetrate their defenses with overwhelming precision and firepower. We will now begin to expand inland, striking progressively deeper into Iranian territory and creating additional freedom of maneuver for U.S. forces.
Let me explain a little bit about how we’re thinking about staying ahead of the enemy. First, over the past several weeks, Adm. Cooper and CENTCOM team have refined their operational approach to the region. Their planners identified key centers of gravity that would allow Iran to project power outside of its borders. They thought about how to isolate critical vulnerabilities and determined where, with precision, the greatest strategic effect could be achieved.
As a result of this, CENTCOM is now shifting in day four already from large deliberate strike packages using stand-off munitions at range outside an enemy’s ability to shoot at us now into stand-in precision strikes overhead Iran. As the Secretary said, this is a point of munitions transition, from stand-off munitions to stand-in munitions like Joint Direct Attack Munitions, which are GPS aided freefall weapons, and other things like Hellfires, etc.
This will allow the joint force to deliver significantly increased precision effects on the target. The throttle is coming up, as the Secretary said, as opposed to – ramping down. This will allow us to maintain consistent pressure on the adversary over the coming days, disrupt their launch timelines and impose costs every day around the clock.
I know there have been a lot of questions about munitions. We have sufficient precision munitions for the task at hand, both on the offense and defense. But I want to tell you, teammates, as a matter of practice, I don’t want to be talking about quantities. And I know there’s been a great debate about that, and I appreciate the interest, but just know that we consider that an operational security matter.
Let me flip to the map here. Hopefully I don’t kill anybody with the laser pointer. As I mentioned earlier – and for you with the camera right there, my friend, I hope I don’t ricochet off and hurt you – over the initial days, the U.S. Joint Forces continued to attack and attrit ballistic missile capabilities as well as integrated air defense capabilities along the southern access.
Along the northern access, Israel and the Israeli Air Force has predominantly been working integrated air defense targets along the northern flank as well as medium range ballistic missile capability as well. From the sea, the USS Ford has continued to project combat power here as well as the bomber pulses that we talked about in the – in the opening days of this briefing.
Along the southern access, the USS Abraham Lincoln strike group has continued to provide pressure from the sea along the southeastern side of the coast and has been attriting naval capability all along the strait and up into the Arabian Gulf at a size and scale sufficiently to address the targets required.
To date, we’ve hit over 2,000 targets. As Adm. Cooper said in his video last night, we’ve destroyed more than 20 Iranian naval vessels, including – in addition to the frigate outside of the area, one submarine and effectively neutralized at this point in time Iran’s major naval presence in – in theater out there.
As the Secretary showed in the video, for the first time since 1945, a United States Navy fast attack submarine has sunk an enemy combatant ship using a single Mark 48 torpedo to achieve immediate effect, sending the warship to the bottom of the sea. I want to remind everybody that this is an incredible demonstration of America’s global reach. To hunt, find and kill an out-of-area deployer is something that only the United States can do at this type of scale.
Over the next 24 to 48 hours, CENTCOM will continue to strike infrastructure and naval capability and will continue to assess our progress against the military objectives. It does take time for us to collect that information and to assess in route. Much of our intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capability is currently hunting and killing ballistic missile launchers in one way attack capability.
We’re precise in that assessment, and we call balls and strikes in that assessment – we take that matter seriously. Iran, on the other hand, has been indiscriminate and more imprecise in their attacks. They’ve fired more than 500 ballistic missiles and more than 2,000 drones, striking innocent civilian targets throughout the region.
Our partners are answering the call to defend themselves right alongside us. Jordan, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the UAE , Qatar and Kuwait are all defending their people with their own combat capability with precision and restraint. Jordanian Air Defense crews recently intercepted a cluster of Iranian one-way attack drones headed to Amman. Bahrain’s Air Defense forces shot down an inbound drone approaching Manama’s maritime infrastructure, protecting both their population and critical shipping lanes.
Saudi Patriot batteries stopped a salvo of ballistic missiles aimed at energy facilities near Dhahran. The UAE neutralized multiple drones targeting Abu Dhabi’s industrial zone, demonstrating speed and precision. In Qatar, Qatari fighters for the first time have shot down two Iranian bombers that were en route to their location. Together, these nations are helping to defend themselves and project power as required against the enemy.
We’re 100 hours in. It’s still very early, as the Secretary said, but the balance is shifting. We’ve always got to remember that these operations are complex, dangerous and far from over. Our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, Guardians and Coast Guard Guardsmen remain in harm’s way, and we must be clear-eyed that the risk is still high. This is combat. Let us never forget this.
As we continue, I ask that we hold all of our deployed teammates in our thoughts, those standing the watch, flying the sorties, sustaining the fight and carrying our nation’s burden. And I’ll stop where I started, and that’s remembering our six fallen, who will return home as soon as possible.
I remain humbled, grateful, inspired by – every day the valor and professionalism of our joint force. They are quiet professionals through and through, out there doing America’s work through the day and through the darkness.
