Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine said Wednesday in a briefing at the Pentagon that the U.S. Central Command is making “steady progress” as the campaign against Iran entered its fifth day, while Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said an American submarine had sunk an Iranian warship.
Hegseth stressed that the operation is still in its early days, noting that “metrics are shifting, dust is settling and more forces are arriving.” Hegseth said the U.S. could “sustain this fight easily for as long as we need to” and “we’re just getting started.”
“It’s very early, and as President Trump has said, we will take all the time we need to make sure that we succeed,” Hegseth said.
He said a torpedo from an American submarine has sunk an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean “that thought it was safe in international waters.”
“Instead it was sunk by a torpedo — quiet death,” Hegseth said. It’s the first time a U.S. Navy submarine has used a torpedo to sink a warship since 1945.
Caine said the operation has destroyed more than 20 Iranian naval vessels, one submarine, “and effectively neutralized, at this point in time, Iran’s major naval presence in theater out there.”
“Only the United States of America could lead this, only us,” Hegseth said. “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.”
Hegseth said “we have only just begun to hunt, dismantle, demoralize, destroy and defeat their capabilities.
“Four days in, we have only just begun the fight,” Hegseth said.
He said “Iran negotiated in bad faith, stalling, scheming and preparing to strike, and we acted defensively to defend our people, our interests and our allies.”
Hegseth said the military operation could last a number of weeks.
“The only limits we have in this is President Trump’s desire to achieve specific effects on behalf of the American people,” Hegseth said. “And that’s why we don’t talk about — you can say four weeks but it could be six, it could be eight, it could be three. Ultimately, we set the pace and the tempo. The enemy is off balance and we’re going to keep them off balance. And we know their ability to shoot versus our ability to defend. That difference gets wider and wider every day.”
The U.S. military has hit more than 2,000 targets in Iran, including command and control centers, ballistic missile sites, Iranian navy ships and submarines, and IRGC headquarters.
So far, six U.S. service members have been killed and 10 seriously wounded, a U.S. official told CBS News. Caine on Wednesday formally announced the names of four of the service members.
“To the families of our fallen, we grieve with you today,” Caine said, noting that the names of the other service members are being withheld for now while their families are being notified.
On Monday, Caine said the military expected to take “additional losses.”
Caine again outlined the military objectives of the campaign, saying the first is to target and eliminate Iran’s ballistic missile systems, to destroy the Iranian navy and to ensure Iran cannot rapidly rebuild or reconstitute its combat capability or power.
“As of this morning, U.S. Central Command is making steady progress,” Caine said.
On Tuesday, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby was asked during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing why it was necessary for the U.S. to take military action against Tehran over the weekend.
Colby referred to remarks made by Hegseth, Caine, and President Trump, who’ve spoken of the “rapid buildup and reconstitution” of Iran’s missile and one-way attack drone capabilities, but did not give a specific reason for what prompted President Trump’s order to begin the operation last weekend.
