Central Command said Sunday that U.S. forces have destroyed more than 1,000 targets so far, including naval ships and submarines, missile sites, communications links and the command and control centers for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
The astonishing figure after less than two days of military operations reflected what one U.S. official described as a “very aggressive” effort to knock out as many of Iran’s capabilities to launch missiles and drones as quickly as possible. Like others, this person spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the news media.
Still, overnight, military officials in U.S. operations centers tracked “dozens and dozens” of missiles and attack drones launched by Iran throughout the night, said another person familiar with the situation.
“Iran is in full retaliation,” this person said.
The vast number of retaliatory attacks — and the array of sites being targeted, including nonmilitary sites in Arab nations across the Middle East — is concerning after so much of the regime’s top leadership was killed, this person continued. Officials are worried about the command and control of those weapons, the person added.
Inside the Pentagon, and among some members of the Trump administration, there was deepening concern Sunday that the Iran conflict could spiral out of control, said people familiar with the situation.
“The mood here is intense and paranoid,” one person said.
There is anxiety among senior leaders that the fighting will extend for weeks, further stressing limited U.S. air defense stockpiles, people familiar with the situation said.
“There is concern about this lasting more than a few days,” said another person. “I don’t think people have fully absorbed yet, like, what that has done with stockpiles,” they added, noting that it often takes two or three air defense interceptors to ensure that an incoming missile is stopped.
The House Armed Services Committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Adam Smith (Washington) said this operation will force the U.S. to further expend munitions supplies that are already strained.
“At this point, it’s on. It’s not like we can say: ‘Hey, Iran, we’re out of missile defense systems now so we’re going to pause for a moment. Is that okay?’ It will stretch our ability to defend everything that we need to defend,” Smith said, characterizing U.S. resources as “stretched thin.”
As The Post reported last week, the president’s senior military adviser, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine, warned the White House that munitions shortfalls and a lack of broad military support from other U.S. allies would add considerable risk to any operation in Iran and to the U.S. personnel put in harm’s way.
Here’s that Washington Post report from last week:
As the Trump administration weighs an attack on Iran, the Pentagon’s top general has cautioned President Donald Trump and other officials that shortfalls in critical munitions and a lack of support from allies will add significant risk to the operation and to U.S. personnel, according to people familiar with internal discussions.
Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, expressed his concerns at a White House meeting last week with Trump and his top aides, these people said, cautioning that any major operation against Iran will face challenges because the U.S. munitions stockpile has been significantly depleted by Washington’s ongoing defense of Israel and support for Ukraine. Caine’s remarks at the White House meeting have not been previously reported.
Separately, in Pentagon meetings this month, Caine also has raised concerns about the scale of any Iran campaign, its inherent complexity and the possibility of U.S. casualties, one person said. The general has said that any operation would be made all the more difficult by a lack of allied support, this person said, speaking like others on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.
In a statement, Caine’s office said that in his role as the president’s top military adviser, the chairman “provides a range of military options, as well as secondary considerations and associated impacts and risks, to the civilian leaders who make America’s security decisions.” Caine, the statement adds, “provides these options confidentially.”
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