Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said Wednesday that Iran’s ability to fight back has been severely degraded in the initial days of Operation Epic Fury, but that the pounding will go on until the Islamic Republic can no longer play the role of neighborhood bully.
“America is winning decisively, devastatingly, and without mercy,” Hegseth said, according to Fox News.
“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,” he said.
“They are toast, and they know it,” Hegseth said.
During a media briefing, Hegseth said Iran is rudderless.
.@SECWAR “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, and enlisted ranks can’t talk or communicate,… pic.twitter.com/tOnju7hVky
— DOW Rapid Response (@DOWResponse) March 4, 2026
“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, and enlisted ranks can’t talk or communicate, let alone mount a coordinated and sustained offensive. That’s not great for morale,” Hegseth said, according to a video posted to X.
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.”
“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, according to another video posted to X.
“I hope all the folks watching understand what ‘uncontested airspace and complete control’ means — it means we will fly, all day — day and night — finding, fixing, and finishing the missiles and defense industrial base of the Iranian military,” he said.
.@SECWAR “Starting last night, and to be completed in a few days… the two most powerful Air Forces in the world will have COMPLETE CONTROL of Iranian skies.
UNCONTESTED AIRSPACE.
I hope you understand what “uncontested airspace” means — it means we will fly, all day — day… pic.twitter.com/5sGl95zllo
— DOW Rapid Response (@DOWResponse) March 4, 2026
“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,” he said.
U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyers are delivering unrelenting, overwhelming firepower from regional waters. DAY and NIGHT. pic.twitter.com/3YTiFkFc1V
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) March 3, 2026
He said Iran will face “death and destruction from the sky, all day long.”
As noted by ABC News, Hegseth said reinforcements are coming to finish what has been started.
“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,” Hegseth said.
“The terms of this war will be set by us at every step,” he said.
“More and larger waves are coming; we are just getting started,” he said.
Hegseth said the job ends when it is done, and it has no timetable.
“It’s very early, and as President Trump has said, we will take all the time we need to make sure that we succeed,” he said. “We are only four days into this, and the results have been incredible.”
“We are accelerating, not decelerating,” he said.
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