Admiral Brad Cooper, the head of U.S. Central Command, said that the Department of War was transitioning to the ‘next phase’ of the operation.
U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said on March 5 that there is no expansion of objectives in the military operation in Iran.
“We know exactly what we’re trying to achieve,” Hesseth said during a news briefing at U.S. Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Florida.
Hegseth was responding to a question about whether President Donald Trump’s desire to have a say in who will be the next leader of Iran represented an expansion of the objectives of Operation Epic Fury.
Later during the press conference, Hegseth addressed concerns that the operation could expand to other nations in the Middle East.
He said that Tehran’s targeting allied countries in the region that would otherwise stay out of the conflict is actually encouraging those nations to side with the United States and Israel in the war.
“This idea that [the conflict] is expanding—no, it’s actually simplifying, in a number of ways—exactly what we need to achieve and how we’ll achieve it,” Hegseth said.
‘Next Phase’ of Operation
Also present at the briefing was Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of U.S. Central Command, who said that the next objective is to destroy Iran’s ballistic missile industrial base.
“So, we’re not just hitting what they have—we’re destroying their ability to rebuild,” Cooper said. “As we transition to the next phase of this operation, we will systemically dismantle Iran’s missile production capability for the future, and that’s absolutely in progress.”
Cooper praised U.S. partners in the region, who he said were, in many cases, “providing the most integrated air defense network in Middle East history.”
“We are fighting to win through combined U.S. and Israeli combat power; we will continue decimating Iran’s ability to project power outside its borders,” he said.
During the briefing, Cooper said that due to the decline in Iran’s combat capability, ballistic missile attacks from the regime have decreased by 90 percent and drone attacks by 83 percent since the start of the war on Feb. 28.
Israel Announces ‘Next Phase’
The same day, Israel announced it was moving into its “next phase” of the Iran campaign after completing the surprise strike phase on the regime.
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of the General Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said in a March 5 statement that since the start of the Iran War, Israeli air force pilots had executed 2,500 strikes, destroying about 80 percent of Iran’s air defense systems and neutralizing and destroying more than 60 percent of ballistic missile launchers.
“After completing the surprise strike phase, in which we established air superiority and suppressed the ballistic missile array, we are now moving to the next phase of the operation,” Zamir said. “In this phase, we will further dismantle the regime and its military capabilities. We have additional surprises ahead which I do not intend to disclose.”
