The U.S. military has set back Iran’s naval power by a generation and retains sufficient munitions to resume combat operations if needed, the commander of U.S. Central Command told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday.
Adm. Brad Cooper, who oversees joint American military operations across the Middle East, testified that Operation Epic Fury eliminated roughly 90 percent of Iran’s defense industrial capacity and crippled the regime’s ability to project force at any meaningful scale.
“I would assess that the drone and missile force will take years to reconstitute,” Cooper said. “[Iran’s] navy likely will not get back to its previous size for a full generation.”
Cooper told senators that Iranian-backed forces launched approximately 350 attacks against U.S. personnel in the 30 months before Operation Epic Fury. That threat, he said, has been dramatically reduced.
“They certainly cannot do it at the level of mass that we all saw, with hundreds of missiles and drones raining across the Middle East,” Cooper said. “That broad power projection capability is gone.”
Senate lawmakers pressed Cooper on reports that U.S. munitions stockpiles have been significantly depleted by the conflict. A Center for Strategic and International Studies analysis last month estimated the U.S. has burned through nearly half its Patriot missile interceptors and more than half its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, interceptors.
Cooper declined to address specific inventory levels but pushed back directly on that assessment.
“I have all the munitions necessary to both defend our forces as well as conduct a broad range of contingencies,” he said. “Our partners also have the sufficient munitions necessary for defense.”
Cooper offered additional detail on the degradation of Iran’s command and control infrastructure, noting the damage extends beyond raw weapons counts.
“It’s more than just the numbers. It’s the command and control that’s been shattered. It’s a significant degradation,” he said. “And it’s the lack of any ability to then produce any missiles or drones on the back end.”
The admiral also addressed the changing nature of drone warfare. He said the era of inexpensive drones has passed, replaced by jet-powered, high-sensor systems that require a different response.
“The days of $35,000 drones that we saw in the last couple of years, particularly in the fight against the Houthis in Yemen, those days are behind us today,” Cooper told the panel. He said the U.S. has countered by deploying its own low-cost drones in strikes against Iran, “flipping the cost curve.”
