Tipsheet

Secretary of War: Today Will Be Our Most Intense Day of Strikes in Operation Epic Fury

Dmitri Bolt
Dmitri Bolt  |  March 10, 2026 11:30 AM

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced that Tuesday would mark the “most intense day of strikes” in Operation Epic Fury, as he outlined the progress the U.S. military has made just over a week into the campaign.

"Today will be, yet again, our most intense day of strikes inside Iran," Hegseth told reporters. "The most fighters, the most bombers, the most strikes, intelligence more refined and better than ever. So that's on one hand. On the other hand, the last 24 hours have seen Iran fire the lowest number of missiles they've been capable of firing yet. Just the bifurcation, just the trend lines that we talked about on our first briefing."

"You see, this is not 2003," he added. "This is not endless nation-building under those types of quagmires we saw under Bush or Obama. It's not even close. Our generation of soldiers will not let that happen again, and nor will this president who very clearly ran against those kinds of never-ending, nebulously scoped missions. Those days are dead. Instead, we're winning decisively with brutal efficiency, total air dominance."

This comes as General Dan 'Razin' Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, revealed the progress the United States military has made just over a week into Operation Epic Fury.

"To date, they've struck more than 5,000 targets," General Caine revealed. 

U.S. Strategic Command bombers recently dropped dozens of 2,000-pound GPS-penetrating weapons on deeply buried missile launchers across the southern flank. We also have struck several one-way drone factories to get at the heart of their autonomous capability. And, of course, alongside our regional partners along the southern flank, continue to execute intercepts against one-way attack drones using fighters and attack helicopters. 

Our strikes mean we've made significant progress in reducing the number of missile and drone attacks out of Iran. Ballistic missile attacks continue to trend downward 90 percent from where they've started, and one-way attack drones have decreased 83 percent since the beginning of the operation. A testament to our air defenders and our air defense systems, and as I said, our partners in the region continue to do great work as well.

General Caine added that we have made "substantial progress" in destroying Iran's navy, destroying over 50 Iranian ships, including several drone carriers.