CENTCOM Commander Provides Update on Operation Epic Fury

US Central Command Commander Admiral Brad Cooper delivered an operational update on Operation Epic Fury on Tuesday, marking 16 days of continuous strikes against Iranian military targets. Cooper opened by honoring the six crew members killed in the KC-135 tanker crash the previous week before outlining the campaign’s current progress.

The Karg Island Strike

On Friday, US forces executed a large-scale precision strike against Karg Island, destroying more than 90 Iranian military targets in a single operation. The targets included naval mine storage bunkers, missile storage facilities, and broader military infrastructure. The strike represents one of the largest single-day target packages of the campaign.

Dismantling the Defense Industrial Base

Cooper used the briefing to reveal before-and-after imagery of three specific target sets for the first time, framing the destruction of Iran’s defense industrial base as the campaign’s long-term objective beyond intercepting immediate threats.

A naval drone storage facility near the Strait of Hormuz photographed on March 1 was shown completely destroyed eight days later. An attack drone production factory in Tehran struck on March 5 was shown devastated six days after the strike. The Yazidi military depot, which housed eight buildings used by the IRGC’s missile command infrastructure to produce light and heavyweight torpedoes, was shown largely destroyed in imagery from last week.

Cooper framed the industrial targeting explicitly. Intercepting missiles and drones as they launch addresses the immediate threat. Destroying the factories and depots that produce them addresses the threat across future years.

Naval Campaign Progress

US and partner forces have destroyed more than 100 Iranian naval vessels since the operation began through a combination of air, land, and maritime strikes. Cooper stated the naval campaign is ongoing and that US forces will continue depleting Iran’s ability to threaten freedom of navigation in and around the Strait of Hormuz.

US aviators across the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps have collectively flown more than 6,000 combat flights since February 28.

Iran’s Regional Attacks

Cooper outlined the scope of Iranian retaliatory strikes across the region, stating Iran has launched attacks against twelve countries in the past two weeks: Oman, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Cyprus, Turkey, Azerbaijan, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Iraq, Kuwait, and Bahrain. He said Iran had conducted more than 300 attacks deliberately targeting civilian populations across those countries.

Logistics and Personnel

Cooper closed by recognizing the 50,000 American service members deployed across the region supporting the operation, with specific attention to logistics and sustainment personnel managing distribution networks spanning thousands of miles to keep munitions, fuel, and supplies reaching front-line units continuously.