"More and larger waves are coming. We are just getting started. We are accelerating, not decelerating. Iran's capabilities are evaporating by the hour, while American strength grows fiercer, smarter and utterly dominant," Hegseth said during a press conference.
"More bombers, fighters are arriving just today. And now with complete control of the skies, we will be using 500-pound, 1000-pound and 2000-pound GPS-and-laser-guided precision gravity bombs, which we have a nearly unlimited stockpile," he added.
Hegseth noted that the U.S. had largely been using standoff munitions — such as cruise missiles and short-range ballistic missiles fired from ships or ground positions — in the campaign so far.
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Gen. Dan Caine said the waves of strikes thus far had degraded Iran's defensive abilities enough to clear the skies for overhead bombing using GPS-aided free-fall weapons and hellfire missiles.
"This will allow the joint force to deliver significantly increased precision effects on the target. The throttle is coming up, as the secretary said, as opposed to ramping down," he said. "This will allow us to maintain consistent pressure on the adversary over the coming days, disrupt their launch timelines and impose costs every day around the clock."
Both Hegseth and Caine said the U.S. and Israeli joint strikes have had a devastating impact on Iran's ability to target U.S. and Israeli aircraft.
However, Iran has continued to launch waves of attacks on U.S. ground assets across the region, killing six American troops in a strike on Kuwait over the weekend. Hegseth said that 90 percent of U.S. forces in the region were out of range of Iranian fire.
Caine said Iran had fired more than 500 ballistic missiles and more than 2,000 drones at Israel and Gulf states hosting U.S. bases, at times striking civilian targets.
The joint U.S.-Israeli assault has also taken a heavy civilian toll. At least 175 people, mostly children, were killed in a strike on a girls' elementary school in southern Iran on Saturday, according to Iranian officials and state media.
More than 870 people have been killed in the war so far, mostly in Iran, but also in Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon and Israel.
Read the full report at thehill.com.
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