The United States is close to achieving “complete control” of Iranian airspace, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth claimed at a press briefing at the Pentagon on Wednesday morning.
“Starting last night and to be completed in a few days in under a week, the two most powerful air forces in the world [the United States and Israel] will have complete control of Iranian skies, uncontested airspace,” Hegseth announced as part of his update to the press on Operation Epic Fury.
Hegseth explained that this means American pilots will be flying “all day, all night, day and night, finding, fixing, and finishing the missiles and defense industrial base of the Iranian military.”
Hegseth described this Air Force mission as “death and destruction from the sky.”
America’s aerial campaign against Iran has involved B-2s, B-52s, B-1s, Predator drones, and fighter jets.
“Flying over Tehran, flying over Iran, flying over their capital, flying over the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] Iranian leaders looking up and seeing only U.S. and Israeli air power, every minute of every day, until we decide it’s over and Iran will be able to do nothing about it,” said Hegseth.
Hegseth also claimed that more bombers and fighters are arriving, or have arrived, to the Middle East today.
While Congress floats a supplemental funding package to reinforce the military operation, Hegseth claimed that the U.S. has “nearly unlimited stockpiles” and can “sustain this fight easily.”
“We’ve taken control of Iran’s airspace and waterways without boots on the ground,” said Hegseth. There are still questions of whether the operation can be successful without putting troops on the ground. Members of Congress spoke out yesterday, fearing it might be inevitable.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., spoke to the press yesterday after a closed-door briefing from the administration: “I am more fearful than ever after this briefing that we may be putting boots on the ground and that troops from the United States may be necessary to accomplish objectives that the administration seems to have.”
