The A-10 pilot was subsequently rescued, two U.S. officials told The New York Times.

Iranian state media stated the A-10 was targeted in southern waters near the strait.

Reports of the A-10 going down Friday followed confirmation that a U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle had been shot down by enemy fire.

One of two F-15E crew members had reportedly been rescued as of Friday afternoon. A search for the second crew member was ongoing.

Search-and-rescue efforts were launched in the immediate aftermath of the fighter jet crash, with videos circulating on social media appearing to show a low-flying U.S. Air Force HC-130 refueling a pair of HH-60G Pave Hawks over Iran.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Friday told Military Times “the president has been briefed” on the downed U.S. F-15E fighter jet.

The Pentagon and U.S. Central Command have not yet responded to requests for comment.

Iranian state media on Friday shared images of aircraft debris alongside claims that Iran had downed a U.S. F-35 fighter jet.

However, images of the aircraft’s tailfin, specifically the red stripe on its vertical stabilizer, are consistent with markings used by the 494th Fighter Squadron, 48th Fighter Wing, based at RAF Lakenheath.

Iran also shared an image of an Advanced Concept Ejection Seat allegedly from the shot down F-15E.

The shoot-down of the F-15E marks the first time during Operation Epic Fury that a manned U.S. aircraft has been brought down by enemy fire.

A U.S. F-35 fighter jet was reportedly hit by enemy fire during a combat mission over Iran on March 19, but was able to make an emergency landing at a U.S. air base in the region.

Six U.S. airmen were killed on March 12 when their KC-135 refueling aircraft crashed in western Iraq during combat operations.

On March 1, three U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jets were shot down by a Kuwaiti F/A-18 in a friendly fire incident. All six F-15 crew members ejected and were safely recovered.

The A-10, meanwhile, has seen an increased role since the start of the Iran war. The attack aircraft has joined maritime interdiction operations, among other missions, along the southern edges of the conflict, targeting Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps fast-attack watercraft in the Strait of Hormuz, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine said last month.

Military Times reporter Michael Scanlon contributed to this report.

One of two U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle crew members shot down by enemy fire in Iran has been rescued, Israeli media first reported. U.S. officials confirmed the reports in statements to CBS News, Axios and Reuters.

A search for the second crew member is ongoing.

A multi-aircraft search-and-rescue effort for survivors was launched on Friday in the immediate aftermath of the engagement, with videos circulating on social media appearing to show a low-flying U.S. Air Force HC-130 refueling a pair of HH-60G Pave Hawks over Iran.

Israel’s N12 News first reported the rescue of the one crew member.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Friday told Military Times “the president has been briefed” on the downed U.S. F-15E fighter jet.

The Pentagon and U.S. Central Command did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Iranian state media on Friday shared images of aircraft debris alongside claims that Iran had downed a U.S. F-35 fighter jet.

However, images of the aircraft’s tailfin, specifically the red stripe on its vertical stabilizer, are consistent with markings used by the 494th Fighter Squadron, 48th Fighter Wing, based at RAF Lakenheath.

Iran also shared an image of an Advanced Concept Ejection Seat allegedly from the shot down F-15E.

The shoot-down of the F-15E marks the first time during Operation Epic Fury that a manned U.S. aircraft has been brought down by enemy fire.

A U.S. F-35 fighter jet was reportedly hit by enemy fire during a combat mission over Iran on March 19, but was able to make an emergency landing at a U.S. air base in the region.

Six U.S. airmen were killed on March 12 when their KC-135 refueling aircraft crashed in western Iraq during combat operations.

On March 1, three U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jets were shot down by a Kuwaiti F/A-18 in a friendly fire incident. All six F-15 crew members ejected and were safely recovered.

A total of 13 U.S. service members have been killed during combat actions against Iran.

A United States F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet has been shot down by enemy fire over Iran, U.S. officials confirmed.

One of the aircraft’s two crew members has been rescued, Israeli media first reported. U.S. officials confirmed the reports in statements to CBS News and Axios.

A search for the second crew member is ongoing.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Military Times “the president has been briefed” on the downed fighter jet.

The Pentagon and U.S. Central Command did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Officials in Iran, meanwhile, called for the search and capture of any surviving crew members of the jet, according to reports by the semi-official ISNA news agency and the Young Journalists Club.

The governor of one of the Islamic Republic’s provinces stated that anyone who captures or kills the crew would receive a special commendation.

Video circulating on social media appeared to show a low-flying U.S. Air Force HC-130 refueling a pair of HH-60G Pave Hawks over Iran while conducting a search for the downed crew.

Iranian state media on Friday shared images of aircraft debris alongside claims that Iran had downed a U.S. F-35 fighter jet.

However, images of the aircraft’s tailfin, specifically the red stripe on its vertical stabilizer, are consistent with markings used by the 494th Fighter Squadron, 48th Fighter Wing, based at RAF Lakenheath.

Iran also shared an image of an Advanced Concept Ejection Seat allegedly from the shot down F-15E.

The search-and-rescue effort inside Iran during an ongoing conflict greatly raises the stakes for the United States.

U.S. Central Command on Tuesday issued a statement denying claims that “Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps downed an ‘enemy’ fighter jet over Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz.”

“All U.S. fighter aircraft are accounted for,” the CENTCOM statement read. “Iran’s IRGC has made the same false claim at least half a dozen times.”

The location of the downed jet has not yet been confirmed.

The shoot-down marks the first time during Operation Epic Fury that a manned U.S. aircraft has been brought down by enemy fire.

A U.S. F-35 fighter jet was reportedly hit by enemy fire during a combat mission over Iran on March 19, but was able to make an emergency landing at a U.S. air base in the region.

Six U.S. airmen were killed on March 12 when their KC-135 refueling aircraft crashed in western Iraq during combat operations.

On March 1, three U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jets were shot down by a Kuwaiti F/A-18 in a friendly fire incident. All six F-15 crew members ejected and were safely recovered.

A total of 13 U.S. service members have been killed during combat actions against Iran.

As of March 31, 348 U.S. personnel have been wounded, Navy Capt. Tim Hawkins, U.S. Central Command spokesperson, told DefenseScoop. Of those injured, the majority have since returned to duty. Six remain seriously wounded.

Reuters contributed to this report.

In a March 26 message on his official letterhead, Lt. Gen. Leonard F. Anderson IV asked his troops to consider whether they were ready for the possibility of being called up in the Iran war.

“I ask you directly: Are you truly ready to deploy, fight, and win? Are your skills sharp, your standards high, and your gear prepared for immediate movement?” he wrote. “Is your desert MARPAT readily available, is your gear packed and ready to pick up and move, or is it stored away in a corner of your home? Are your family’s affairs in order?”

These questions, he continued, were about readiness.

“When the call comes, readiness will be assumed, not questioned,” he wrote. “Your readiness is not a declaration; it is a daily commitment.”

The letter made a stir as it circulated on social media channels, with some posters speculating that it was a fake and others questioning its meaning.

“Sounds like a warning order,” one user wrote on LinkedIn.

In an exclusive interview with Military Times on Thursday, Anderson said he hadn’t become aware until a few days prior that his letter, which he confirmed authentic, was creating a stir.

His handwritten postscript — “Fight’s On!” — was, he said, the slogan of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 312, his old squadron where he flew the F/A-18C Hornet.

“I just felt at a time on the planet and where we are as a force in the Marine Corps, it was just time for a reminder to the reserve force to be ready. And I wanted to get that message out as widely as possible,” he said. “I owe it to not only the Marines to make sure that they’re ready, but to their families, their parents, their wives, whatever it might be, if a reservist is activated and going forward.

“It’s my responsibility as the commander of Marine Forces Reserve to make sure that they are trained, equipped and prepared, and their families are prepared to put them forward. If I didn’t do that, if I wasn’t reminding the force to be ready, I’d be failing as a commander.”

Since the U.S. began strikes on Iran Feb. 28, the prospect of a longer fight involving ground troops has been the subject of intense speculation.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth refused to rule out a boots-on-the-ground scenario early in the assault, saying he did not want to limit military options. The Pentagon has reportedly begun planning for ground operations lasting weeks, and U.S. troops on ships and aircraft continue to pour into the region, at the ready for a major operation.

Anderson said the response he’s seen to his letter has been “overwhelmingly positive.”

“I have not … dived down into the long Reddit chains to dwell on some of the negative comments there,” he said, adding, “I don’t think there was a question out there from the majority of the reserve force that, yes, we should be ready.”

While most of the roughly 33,600 Marine reservists are typically in a drilling status, holding down civilian jobs while maintaining readiness in a contingency, recent conflicts have seen the rapid activation of Reserve forces.

Reserve forces responded immediately in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and piloted the first fixed-wing aircraft into Afghan airspace, according to Air Force Reserve Command. Likewise, Reserve units were on the ground in the Middle East for months leading up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Formally, full mobilization of the Reserves required a declaration of war or a national emergency by Congress. Partial mobilization of up to one million reservists for up to two years can be triggered by a presidential national emergency declaration.

An additional authority enables the president to call up 200,000 members of the Selected Reserve and up to 30,000 members of the Individual Ready Reserve — those who have recently left active duty — for up to a year.

The Iran conflict has also prompted speculation about the return to military conscription, a process that would require an act of Congress and, in ideal conditions, take the better part of a year to set in motion.

Anderson’s message emphasizes that readiness for drilling troops “is not a theoretical exercise.”

“Our forces are currently engaged in operations connected to Iran and are positioned to preserve stability in the Western Hemisphere,” he wrote. “Our enemies get a vote, and mass mobilization could become reality. We are operating in this environment now. History demands our readiness today, tomorrow, and every day.”

Anderson, who also commands Marine Forces South, is a career Hornet pilot and graduate of the Navy Fighter Weapons School, or TOPGUN, who served as a member of the Blue Angels demonstration team from 2002-2004.

He deployed twice to Iraq and Qatar in support of Operation Inherent Resolve, the coalition fight against ISIS. He has said the release of the original Top Gun film in 1986 influenced his decision to join the Marine Corps.

“Check your readiness,” Anderson wrote in the conclusion to his message. “Tighten your standards. Prepare your family.”

“Expertise is not a drone, but a skill, a strategy, a system where a drone is one part of the defense,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Reuters on Monday.

Ukraine now produces roughly 1,000 interceptor drones a day through hundreds of vetted manufacturers, deliberately dispersed so that no single strike can cripple the supply chain, Zelenskyy reported last month. The country has the technical capacity to double that figure, he said, but lacks the budget to do so.

While Ukraine has built that infrastructure gradually over the last few years, most countries now trying to integrate interceptors into the air defense have not invested in building the necessary logistical framework needed to effectively build, arm or deploy the cheap flyers.

Some countries have already learned this lesson the hard way.

After some Ukrainian companies built interceptor drone factories abroad without state approval, multiple buyers complained because the drones were sold without the warheads or expertise needed to operate them properly, Zelenskyy said on Friday, per Ukrainska Pravda.

“They had also been sold a certain number of interceptors — again without explosives,” Zelenskyy said about a European country he visited recently. “And they asked me whether we could send more operators. I said no.”

The bottleneck isn’t the interceptor itself, but the logistics infrastructure to produce and sustain them at scale, officials said.

“It seems there is still a misconception,” Artem Moroz, head of investor relations at Brave1, wrote on LinkedIn last month.

Brave1, Ukraine’s defense-tech accelerator, has worked with more than 500 defense startups since 2023 and now serves as the primary gateway for foreign governments seeking access to Ukrainian drone technology and production partnerships.

“Many believe Ukraine could simply send a few hundred interceptor drones to the Middle East and stop the Shahed drones currently hitting critical infrastructure,” Moroz said. “Drone warfare is far more complex than that.

“Yes, hardware matters. And Ukraine knows how to build drones at scale. But the real advantage lies in the infrastructure behind them.”

Companies launch drone-production innovations

The gap between buying a drone and building the system to sustain it is the market several defense companies are now racing to fill.

A handful of defense companies from Helsinki to San Francisco are offering the production line, the detection system and the supply infrastructure compressed into a portable unit that can be shipped anywhere to produce up to dozens of drones a day.

Sensofusion, a Finnish defense company founded in 2016, sells a full-cycle drone production chain as one of the latest innovators in this arena.

The company’s $2.4 million (€2.1 million Euros) Tactical Drone Factory is a standard 20-foot shipping container equipped with industrial 3D printers, an electronics assembly station and enough spares to run around the clock with a crew of three, producing up to 50 interceptor drones a day, according to the company.

What sets the Finnish system apart from its competitors is that it’s not just a factory: It ships as a package with Sensofusion’s Airfence radio-frequency detection and tracking platform, designed to detect a hostile drone, cue an interceptor and guide it to the kill — a full sensor-to-effector chain in a box.

The company says each interceptor costs less than $580 (€500) and is built to chase targets at speeds up to 310 mph (500 km/h).

Although Sensofusion boasts some of the highest production numbers on the market, it’s not the first company to market the concept of a portable all-in-one drone production hub.

Firestorm Labs' xCell system, the most tested U.S. equivalent to Sensofusion, uses two containers and works at a significantly slower pace by producing roughly 50 drones per month. Its newly announced SQUALL airframe is the first drone purpose-built to come off a mobile factory line, according to the company.

Founded in 2022, Firestorm’s biggest selling point is its testing and validation. The company holds a $100 million U.S. Air Force contract, has run field exercises with Air Force Special Operations Command and the Air National Guard and raised $47 million in Series A funding.

Per Se Systems, a French firm, operates in a middle ground by building micro drone factories on trailers — instead of shipping containers — that produce up to ten drones per hour on a generator with 19 hours of autonomous operation.

Per Se has been field-tested with 12 French Army regiments and is embedded in four active development projects with the French military, according to Army Recognition.

The drawbacks of production containers

Some logistics and strategy specialists say the all-in-one package wrapped into the portable factory concept ignores some critical battlefield questions that could render the projects useless.

A container full of printers, raw materials, sensitive electronics and proprietary design files concentrates exactly the kind of capability an adversary would want to destroy or capture, according to a Center for Strategic and International Studies analysis that identified several strategic vulnerabilities in frontline drone production.

And the problems compound from there.

Airframes can be printed, but the motors, batteries, electronic speed controllers, radios and sensors that make a drone combat-capable cannot, and those components must be trucked to the container through the same supply chains the factory is supposed to bypass.

Quality control under field conditions remains untested. Vibration, temperature swings, dust and intermittent power degrade the dimensional tolerances that 3D-printed parts require, and no company has demonstrated sustained production outside a controlled environment.

“Industrial resilience is combat power,” the CSIS experts concluded. “The next war will not be won by who initially fields the most drones, but by who sustains building them at scale.”

Several countries are catching on to the growing need to invest in drone production logistics.

Five NATO nations — the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Poland — launched a joint initiative in February to develop affordable interceptor drones within a year under a program called LEAP, explicitly drawing on Ukrainian battlefield know-how to do it.

Ukraine’s experts say they are ready and willing to share their hard-earned lessons with allies, including the strategies to build a new layer of defense alongside the new weapons themselves.

“What Ukraine has built is a deep operational ecosystem across multiple domains, designed for conflicts where entirely new types of threats appear,” Brave1’s Moroz said.

“And ecosystems like this are extremely hard to copy,” he explained. “Even investing hundreds of billions or a trillion today would not easily replicate the experience, integration, and speed of iteration built over years of real combat.”

His final words of advice to allies?

“Drones are the tool. The infrastructure is the weapon.”

Citing multiple U.S. officials, the Post report suggested ground operations could involve both conventional infantry and special operations elements, but would not yet rise to the level of a full-scale invasion.

Decisions on whether or not to green light operations, which would put U.S. troops at substantially more risk to Iranian threats, now rest with President Donald Trump.

“It’s the job of the Pentagon to make preparations in order to give the commander in chief maximum optionality,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement provided to Military Times. “It does not mean the president has made a decision.”

The Post’s report comes as U.S. military assets continue to flood the region. On Friday, U.S. Marines and sailors assigned to the Tripoli Amphibious Ready Group arrived in U.S. Central Command waters.

The group, which is led by the America-class amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli and includes the embarked 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, departed earlier this month from its homeport of Sasebo, Japan.

The Pentagon has also confirmed elements from the 82nd Airborne Division headquarters and a brigade combat team are slated to deploy to the Middle East. Based out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina, the 82nd acts as the Army’s rapid-response force and is often among the first units sent to respond to emerging crises.

The report also comes on the heels of an Iranian missile and drone attack on Friday that injured a dozen U.S. service members at Prince Sultan Airbase in Saudi Arabia. Two of the 12 injuries are considered to be serious.

The strike also reportedly damaged multiple U.S. aircraft, including an E-3 Sentry AWACS and multiple KC-135 tankers.

Thirteen service members have been killed in action and nearly 300 wounded during Operation Epic Fury, a joint undertaking by U.S. and Israeli militaries against the Islamic Republic that began on Feb. 28.

The majority of the wounded have since returned to duty, according to U.S. Central Command.

Prior to Friday’s attack, 10 U.S. troops remained in serious condition.

A dozen U.S. service members were wounded Friday in an Iranian missile strike on Prince Sultan Airbase in Saudi Arabia, the Wall Street Journal first reported.

Two of the 12 personnel, all of whom were reportedly inside an installation building at the time of the attack, are in serious condition.

Attempts to contact U.S. Central Command had not been returned as of publication.

Friday’s strike, which reportedly damaged multiple U.S. refueling aircraft and involved Iranian drones as well, comes as the U.S. military continues to pour assets into the region.

The Pentagon on Wednesday confirmed elements from the 82nd Airborne Division headquarters and a brigade combat team are slated to deploy to the Middle East.

The 82nd, based out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina, acts as the Army’s rapid-response force and is often among the first units sent to respond to emerging crises.

U.S. Marines and sailors with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, which includes up to 5,000 personnel and several warships, are also reportedly heading toward the Middle East after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth approved a request from CENTCOM to help curtail Iran’s regional attacks.

The 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, part of the Boxer Amphibious Ready Group, has also been rumored to serve as a potential reinforcement. The group deployed in recent weeks and is currently operating in the U.S. 3rd Fleet area of operations in the eastern Pacific.

Marines and sailors with the 11th MEU carried out a large-scale amphibious assault exercise on March 2 aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California, prior to steaming toward open water.

Thirteen service members have been killed in action and nearly 300 wounded during Operation Epic Fury, a joint undertaking by U.S. and Israeli militaries against the Islamic Republic that began on Feb. 28.

The majority of the wounded have since returned to duty, according to U.S. Central Command.

Prior to Friday’s attack, 10 U.S. troops remained in serious condition.

Military Times reporters Eve Sampson and Riley Ceder contributed to this report.

The deployment of the vessels — which can be used for surveillance or kamikaze strikes — has not been previously reported. It comes despite a series of setbacks in the U.S. Navy’s years‑long effort to field a fleet of uncrewed surface vessels, Reuters reported last year.

Uncrewed vessels have risen to prominence in recent years after Ukraine used explosive‑laden speedboats to inflict significant damage on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.

Iran has used sea drones to attack oil tankers in the Gulf at least twice since the U.S. and Israel began strikes nearly a month ago. There was no indication the U.S. had used uncrewed vessels for offensive strikes.

In response to Reuters’ questions, Tim Hawkins, a Pentagon spokesperson for Central Command, said unmanned vessels built by Maryland-based BlackSea, known as the Global Autonomous Reconnaissance Craft, or GARC, had been used for patrols as part of the U.S. campaign against Iran, dubbed “Operation Epic Fury.”

“U.S. forces continue to employ unmanned systems in the Middle East region, including surface drone assets like the GARC. This platform, in particular, has successfully logged over 450 underway hours and more than 2,200 nautical miles during maritime patrols in support of Operation Epic Fury,” Hawkins said in a statement.

Hawkins declined to name any of the other unmanned systems being deployed. BlackSea declined to comment for this story.

Navy struggles with drone boats

The U.S. has for years been trying to build a fleet of autonomous uncrewed surface and underwater vessels, as a cheaper and faster alternative to manned ships and submarines, particularly to counter China’s growing naval power in the Pacific. The effort, however, has fallen behind schedule and been dogged by technical problems, cost concerns and a series of testing setbacks.

Last year, Reuters reported the GARC, an angular speedboat about five meters long, was involved in multiple performance and safety issues, including one where it collided with another boat at speed during a military test.

In recent weeks, during another failed test in the Middle East, one GARC boat became inoperable, according to a source who was briefed on the matter.

Hawkins declined to comment on the testing setbacks.

“The GARC is an emerging capability and part of a fleet of surface drones operated by U.S. 5th Fleet to enhance awareness of what’s happening in regional waters,” he said.

“The sailor has been transported ashore for additional medical care and remains in stable condition,” according to a U.S. Naval Forces Central Command/U.S. Fifth Fleet post on X.

The injury was not life threatening, the service stated. The circumstances of the incident are under investigation.

The carrier remains deployed as a part of Operation Epic Fury, conducting strike missions on Iran.

USS Gerald R. Ford docks in Greece for port call after fire

The USS Abraham Lincoln departed Naval Base San Diego, California, on Nov. 21, 2025, for an Indo-Pacific deployment but was rerouted to the Middle East as tension between Iran and the U.S. mounted in the weeks leading up to the Iran war.

The Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group arrived in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility in January, along with Carrier Air Wing 9 and destroyers USS Frank E. Petersen, Jr., USS Spruance and USS Michael Murphy.

Nearly 300 troops have been injured so far during Operation Epic Fury, which began on Feb. 28 when the U.S. military launched strikes against Iran, killing Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Ten U.S. service members remain seriously wounded, while 255 have returned to duty.

Thirteen U.S. service members have been killed in action during the war.

The Pentagon was unable to determine the operational effectiveness or suitability of Independence-class littoral combat ships equipped with the mine countermeasures mission package due to insufficient data on its mine-hunting and mine-destroying technology, according to the Office of the Director, Operational Test & Evaluation’s fiscal 2025 annual report.

Several retired U.S. Navy captains who deployed on minesweepers and defense analysts also told Military Times that the LCS with the MCM mission package, which replaced four Avenger-class mine countermeasures ships in 2025, is not as effective as its predecessor due to a myriad of technological constraints and malfunctions.

“The Navy has not provided sufficient data from operational employment of [Airborne Mine Neutralization System] and [Airborne Laser Mine Detection System] to determine operational effectiveness of the Independence variant with MCM MP,” the March 13 DOT&E report stated.

Both of these counter-mine systems are deployed by MH-60S helicopters, which are attached to the littoral combat ship. They identify and destroys mines through sonar, lasers and deployed unmanned underwater vehicles.

The systems “demonstrated low reliability prior to fleet release,” according to a classified 2016 DOT&E report, the March 13 report said.

“The AMNS cannot neutralize most of the mines in the Navy’s threat scenarios,” a public version of the 2016 report said.

The 2025 DOT&E report also stated that the Unmanned Influence Sweep System, which is employed onboard the LCS and uses an unmanned surface vehicle to sweep mines with acoustic and electromagnetic generators, was “not operationally suitable.”

It cited a previous 2022 DOT&E report that said the system’s operational availability was 29%, “well below the Navy-defined minimum threshold,” and did “not support sustained mine sweeping operations.”

Despite ongoing concerns with the technology, the Navy declared the MCM mission package and AN/AQS-20 Sonar Mine Detection Sets operationally capable in 2023.

The Navy conducted no additional operational tests of the LCS with the MCM mission package in fiscal 2025, according to DOT&E’s report.

The service did not return Military Times’ request for comment by the time of this story’s publication.

An unproven system

“I’m a pessimist when it comes to our ability to deal with the mine warfare threat,” said retired Capt. Anthony Cowden.

Cowden spent one year assigned to a minesweeper during his 37-year career as a commissioned naval officer and said he didn’t believe that the LCS with the MCM mission package could prove as effective as the Avenger-class mine countermeasures ship.

The fact that it has never been proven in combat is a major concern for Cowden.

“The question is, it can reach [initial operation capability], but if it can only sweep 10% as effectively as the old capability, that doesn’t mean you’re not at IOC, it just means you’ve got a real problem,” Cowden said.

The Navy still has four Avenger-class mine countermeasures ships stationed in Sasebo, Japan, but decommissioned the four that were homeported in Bahrain in 2025 — USS Devastator, USS Dextrous, USS Gladiator and USS Sentry — each of which served for over 30 years.

The minesweepers have a proven track record of identifying and destroying naval mines, using their sonar, tethered remote operating systems and influence technology to sweep over 1,000 mines off the coast of Kuwait during the Gulf War.

The US Navy decommissioned Middle East minesweepers last year. Here’s what they did.

Three littoral combat ships with the MCM mission package arrived in the Middle East in 2025, including the USS Canberra, USS Santa Barbara and USS Tulsa.

The Canberra was stationed in the Indian Ocean as of March 16, and the Santa Barbara and Tulsa were conducting a port call in Singapore as of Thursday.

Minesweepers are made of wood and encased in fiberglass, which allows them to operate inside and near a mine-threat zone. The LCS with the MCM mission package, however, is made of aluminum and must sit outside the mine zone as it deploys helicopters and unmanned underwater and surface vehicles to mine hunt and minesweep.

This standoff distance, coupled with the littoral combat ship’s reliance on unproven autonomous systems to hunt and sweep mines, worries Cowden.

Capt. Sam Howard, who commanded the USS Raven minesweeper during his time in the Navy, said the point of the new MCM mission package was to keep service members outside of the mine field and protect them from danger.

But that doesn’t mean its efficacy rivals that of the Avenger-class minesweeper.

“They don’t have the endurance, nor has the automation arrived at the level of effectiveness that having manned systems historically has had,” Howard said.

A host of potential problems

Compared to its predecessor, the LCS with the MCM mission package has limited range.

The LCS mothership has to maintain line of sight with the unmanned surface vehicle or vessel it deploys to minesweep, which means its radius of operability is limited, since the LCS must remain outside the mine zone.

There has also been a host of other problems for the ship, which began its initial testing and evaluation in the fall of 2022 aboard the USS Cincinnati.

Ethan Connell, assistant director for George Mason University’s Taiwan Security Monitor, has written about America’s weaknesses when it comes to dealing with mine warfare for the Center of Maritime Strategy, a U.S. think tank focusing on national security in the sea domain.

He said that the MCM technology tasked with detecting mines had issues doing just that when it conducted testing off the coast of Southern California with clear water and no visibility hinderances.

The systems both detected more mines and less mines than were actually there, he said. The operability tests used threat-representative mine surrogates, which are devices meant to simulate mines.

If the ship was making these mistakes during ideal testing conditions, how would it fare in the murky waters of the Strait of Hormuz, he posited. The 2016 DTO&E report determined mine-hunting capabilities are limited in “other-than-benign environmental conditions.”

Further, the LCS with the MCM mission package has previously reported single points of failure, including: the platform lift that helps move the unmanned underwater vehicle from the mission bay to the hangar bay; the crane that places unmanned surface vehicles into the water; and the tow hook on the unmanned surface vehicles.

“There’s no backup,” Connell said.

If one of these elements were to go awry, the whole MCM mission package could not function, according to Connell, especially since sailors aboard the ship likely wouldn’t be able to fix the machinery and would need assistance from the manufacturer.

“Maintainers demonstrated limited capability to repair the [Unmanned Influence Sweep System] due to deficiencies in maintainer documentation for operational-level repairs and additional repairs that required subject matter expert intervention,” a nonpublic fiscal 2021 DOT&E report said, according to Breaking Defense.

These issues elongate the preparation time needed to deploy the autonomous aspects of the MCM mission package, Connell said. It takes four hours of premission maintenance followed by roughly 90 minutes to calibrate GPS and sonar to ensure the type of accuracy needed for MCM operations.

That’s nearly six hours that needs to be baked into planning before the mission can even begin.

“When you have a system where everything needs to be perfect in order for it to work, obviously, that is a really bad thing,” Connell said.

Even sailors tasked with the development of the technology have been candid about its status as a viable piece of technology.

Capt. Scott Hattaway, director of the Naval Surface and Mine Warfighting Development Center’s Mine Countermeasures Technical Division, hinted at its potential shortcomings in 2025.

“I’m not saying we got it right, I’m saying we’re first out of the gate,” Hattaway told Naval News.

The mine threat

The naval mine threat in the Middle East has long been noted.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy views the maritime weapon as a key tenet of its military doctrine, according to a 2017 Office of Naval Intelligence report.

Iran reportedly began laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz as of March 11 and the country’s military possesses nearly 6,000 mines in its weapons stockpile, a recent report from Congress said.

Adm. Brad Cooper, head of U.S. Central Command, said March 16 that U.S. forces destroyed storage bunkers for naval mines during a March 13 U.S. strike on military targets on Iran’s oil export hub, Kharg Island.

U.S. forces destroyed 16 Iranian minelayers on March 10, according to CENTCOM.

And as of Monday, the U.S. has damaged or destroyed over 140 Iranian vessels, according to a CENTCOM fact sheet.

But Iran’s military still has ways to lay mines, according to Seth Jones, president of the defense and security department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank specializing in national security.

“The Iranians don’t have a lot of major capabilities for mine laying, but what they do have is hundreds of ships that are capable of laying two to three mines a piece, in addition to some subsurface vessels,” Jones said.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine said Thursday during a Pentagon briefing that A-10 Warthogs were targeting Iran’s fast-attack watercraft in the Strait of Hormuz.

If Iran proves able to use these means to deploy mines in the sea passage, Jones said the U.S. military could potentially face challenges with its current MCM capabilities in the region, including the LCS.

If the naval mine warfare threat comes to fruition in the sea passage, the U.S. military will likely need to forward deploy its four Avenger-class mine countermeasures ships from Japan to the Middle East or ask U.S. allies with their own counter-mine capabilities for assistance, according to Jones.

The possibility of success

Others who spoke with Military Times weren’t so quick to deride the LCS with the MCM mission package.

Retired Capt. Mike Sparks, a former minesweeper commander who operated in the Persian Gulf aboard the USS Dextrous, understood the reticence to embrace the new technology.

During his time in the Middle East, in the early 2000s, there were concerns as to whether or not the minesweeper’s efforts would be successful, he said, but he and other sailors proved the ship could do its job effectively. He sees this as a sign that the LCS could do the same.

“The systems that I operated in the rivers of Iraq, were not intended to be used in the rivers of Iraq,” Sparks said.

As the Navy began rolling out the MCM mission package, his belief in the system was low and his criticism high. But his skepticism has since morphed to embrace the technology as it has advanced.

“The things that we have out there now I believe have a great deal of capability and optimally they will function as they have been designed,” Sparks said. “I expect the technology they have out there is going to succeed.”

The global price of oil continues to skyrocket as Iran’s missiles and drones hit vital infrastructure in Arab Gulf states. Billion-dollar American radar systems have also been targeted and destroyed across the Middle East by Iran, seemingly degrading U.S. defenses.

U.S. military presence near Iran includes dozens of locations and tens of thousands of troops in harm’s way. This raises the question: If a missile is launched from Iran toward a U.S. military base in the region, how do service members know in time to stay safe?

The United States and its allies have built a layered system to watch the skies day and night. This system uses satellites in space, radar on the ground, ships at sea and aircraft in the air. It also depends on well-trained military members from U.S. Space Command who make quick decisions with the data. As a former U.S. Air Force officer and now aerospace and national security law professor at the University of Mississippi, I’ve studied the vast network of alliances and systems that make this happen.

Patriot air defense interception is costly: Here’s how it works

Together, these tools form a missile defense network that can spot danger early and give warnings. The fastest way to spot a missile is from space. U.S. satellites, like the U.S. Space Force’s Space-Based Infrared System, circle high above Earth. These billion-dollar satellites, the crown jewels of missile defense, can spot the bright heat from a missile launch almost instantly.

When a missile is fired, it creates a strong enough heat signal to be seen in space. The satellites detect this heat using sensitive, infrared sensors and send an alert within seconds. This early warning is critical. It gives the military on the ground or at sea time to get defense systems ready.

The warning signal from space is then received on the ground by systems known as the U.S. Space Force’s Joint Tactical Ground Stations. The signal is sent from space using secure satellite communications, received by these ground stations and then quickly distributed to other parts of the missile defense network.

Radar to detect and track missiles

But satellites cannot do everything to detect and track missiles. They need help from systems on Earth. After a missile is launched, ground-based radars take over from the initial satellite signal. Radars work by sending out radio waves. When those waves hit an object, like a missile, they bounce back. The radar then uses that information to track where the object is and where it is going throughout its flight.

The U.S. uses both short and long-range radars together. One powerful, long-range radar is the AN/FPS-132 Upgraded Early Warning Radar. It can see missiles from over 3,000 miles (4,828 kilometers) away and track them as they travel. Another key system is the U.S. Army’s AN/TPY-2 Surveillance Transportable Radar. This radar has a range of almost 2,000 miles (3,219 kilometers) and looks more closely at the missile to provide more information about the threat. TPY-2 systems typically sit right next to weapons systems that will destroy the missile to ensure the timely relay of tracking data.

In sum, satellites spot the launch and radars follow the missile through the sky until defense systems destroy it.

However, Iranian forces recently struck both a TPY-2 in Jordan and a FPS-132 in Qatar. These systems are expensive and difficult to quickly replace. This has required the U.S. to move an additional TPY-2 from Korea to place it in the Middle East.

U.S. missile defense tracking was certainly degraded by losing these resources, but other radars are still part of the network. For example, the U.S. Space Force operates another FPS-132 in the U.K., which could potentially provide radar support to the Middle East.

In addition to ground and space-based sensors, U.S. Navy ships carry powerful radar systems as part of their Aegis Combat System, known as the AN/SPY-1, which can provide up to 200 miles (322 kilometers) of coverage. Ships can sail closer to areas where threats may come from and help fill gaps that land-based radars cannot cover.

U.S. Air Force aircraft also play a big role. Planes like the E-3 Sentry can watch large areas using radar from the sky. Drones such as the MQ-9 Reaper can stay in the air for long periods and track activity below with radar and sensors. These moving sensors help the system stay flexible. If one area needs more coverage or is degraded, ships and aircraft can move there to fill in.

Why drones are harder to catch

Drones require a different set of tracking tools and have proven more difficult to destroy than missiles from Iran. The legacy systems are simply better suited to missiles than new drone technology. To detect drones, the U.S. typically uses several tools: radar; radio signal tracking, which can pick up control signals; and cameras and other sensors, which can see drones directly.

Missiles are fast and hot, which makes them easier to detect with the current systems. Iranian drones, such as the Shahed system, are different. Their heat signature is often minimal due to using gas-powered engines not easily detected by infrared sensors. Without this heat signature, that initial warning cue is delayed, making it difficult for radar to know what to track.

Drones are usually smaller and fly low to the ground, making them hard to see on radar. They can be hidden by buildings or tough to distinguish from birds and other objects. Some are made of materials that do not show up well on radar, such as fiberglass and plastic. Others move slowly, which can make them harder to notice or stand out.

Many of Iran’s drones do not show up on radio signal detection systems because they cannot be remotely controlled. These drones are programmed with GPS coordinates and navigate themselves to a target.

Multiple methods

No single method works all the time to defend against drone attacks. Instead, these tools work together to find and track drones. The U.S. and its allies continue to improve their systems to catch both missiles and drones. For example, the U.S. is in discussions to buy acoustics sensors from Ukraine, which can hear drones coming when they cannot be seen using other methods.

New sensors, better software and faster communication will all help strengthen defenses. The goal is simple: Detect threats earlier, respond faster and hit the target faster.

Aaron Brynildson is a law instructor at the University of Mississippi.

Both Bahrain and Washington have blamed an Iranian drone attack for the March 9 blast, which the Gulf kingdom said injured 32 people including children, some seriously. Commenting on the day of the attack, U.S. Central Command said on X that an Iranian drone struck a residential neighborhood in Bahrain.

In response to questions from Reuters, Bahrain on Saturday acknowledged for the first time that a Patriot missile was involved in the explosion over the Mahazza neighborhood on Sitra island, offshore from the capital Manama and also home to an oil refinery.

In a statement, a Bahraini government spokesperson said the missile successfully intercepted an Iranian drone mid-air, saving lives.

“The damage and injuries sustained were not a result of a direct impact to the ground of either the Patriot interceptor or the Iranian drone,” the spokesperson said.

Neither Bahrain or Washington has provided evidence that an Iranian drone was involved in the Mahazza incident.

The use of costly, advanced weaponry to defend against attacks by far cheaper drones has been a defining feature of the war. The incident points to the risks and limitations of this strategy: The blast from the powerful Patriot, whether or not it intercepted a drone, contributed to widespread damage and casualties, while Bahrain’s air defenses were unable to prevent strikes that night on the nearby oil refinery, which declared force majeure hours later.

When asked for comment, the Pentagon referred Reuters to Central Command, which did not immediately reply to questions.

In response to questions sent to the White House, a senior U.S. official said the United States was “crushing” Iran’s ability to shoot or produce drones and missiles. “We will continue to address these threats to our country and our allies,” the official said, adding that the U.S. military “never targets civilians.” The official did not answer specific questions about the Patriot attack.

On February 28, the first day of U.S. strikes on Iran, an Iranian girls school took a direct hit. Investigators at the U.S. Defense Department believe U.S. forces were likely responsible, Reuters first reported, possibly because of outdated targeting data, two U.S. sources previously told the news agency.

Video of the aftermath of the Mahazza blast in Bahrain verified by Reuters shows rubble around houses, a thick layer of dust in the streets, an injured man and screaming residents.

Both Bahrain and the United States operate U.S. Patriot air defense batteries in the kingdom, a close U.S. ally located on the Persian Gulf that hosts the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet along with the regional U.S. naval command.

Bahrain plays a critical role in the security of the Strait of Hormuz, the chokepoint that carries about a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas and has been almost entirely closed by Iran, causing unprecedented disruption to world oil supplies.

On the night of the explosion in Mahazza, the refinery on Sitra came under Iranian attack, according to Bahraini national oil company Bapco. Videos show smoke rising from the facility on the morning of March 9.

Reuters could not establish whether the cause of the explosion during a night of Iranian attacks on Sitra would have been immediately apparent to U.S. and Bahraini forces. Bahrain in its statement did not say why it had not mentioned the involvement of a Patriot at the time. Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the incident.

Produced by Raytheon, part of RTX Corp. [RTX], the Patriot is the U.S. Army’s primary high-to-medium-range aircraft-and-missile interceptor system and forms the backbone of U.S. and allied air defenses. Raytheon didn’t respond to a request for comment about the incident.

Bahrain’s government declined to say whether the missile that detonated on March 9, was fired by its own forces or by the United States.

But research associates Sam Lair and Michael Duitsman and Professor Jeffrey Lewis of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey concluded with moderate-to-high confidence that the suspect missile was likely launched from a U.S. Patriot battery located about 4 miles (7 km) to the southwest of the Mahazza neighborhood.

The conclusions of the three American munitions and open-source intelligence researchers, reported here for the first time, were based on their review of open-source visuals and commercial satellite imagery.

Reuters showed the Middlebury analysis to two target-analysis experts and one Patriot system missile researcher, who found no reason to dispute its conclusion.

One of them, Wes Bryant, a former senior targeting advisor and policy analyst at the Pentagon, said Lair, Duitsman and Lewis’s conclusions were “pretty undeniable.”

Key to the Middlebury analysis was a video shot from an apartment building and shared on social media. The video shows the suspect Patriot roaring across the night sky at low altitude on a northeastern trajectory. It then angled downward and out of sight. A flash of light in the distance appeared to mark its detonation 1.3 seconds later.

Hany Farid, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley specializing in digital forensics, reviewed the video for Reuters to determine if it was generated by artificial intelligence. He found “no obvious evidence that the video is fake.”

Lair, Duitsman and Lewis geolocated the video to a neighborhood in Riffa, Bahrain’s second-largest city. Reuters confirmed the geolocation. The earliest post of the video Reuters could find online was at around 2 am local time on March 9.

“The Riffa site’s location and orientation are consistent with the trajectory” of that of the suspect Patriot, the analysis said.

Multiple videos posted to social media the morning of March 9 show damage to residences in Block 602 of the Mahazza neighborhood. The researchers first geolocated the visuals using landmarks that appeared to match commercial satellite imagery of the area and visible street addresses. Reuters independently verified the geolocation.

The researchers then traced the trajectory of the suspect missile from Block 602 straight back to what they assessed – based on commercial satellite imagery – was the U.S. Patriot battery based less than half a mile from where the video of the missile in flight was recorded in Riffa.

A battery consists of a radar unit, a command hub and up to eight launchers that are integrated to detect, track and intercept aircraft and missiles.

Using commercial satellite imagery, the researchers determined that five launchers were visible at the Riffa site two days before the March 9 incident.

The battery has been there since at least 2009, according to satellite imagery. The Bahraini Defense Force did not start operating its own Patriot systems until 2024, according to a Lockheed Martin press release.

The Riffa site has features that are both distinctive to U.S. Patriot batteries in the region and different from those of known Bahrain-operated batteries, the researchers said, including protective walls, unpaved roads and a lack of permanent buildings. Based on these elements, the researchers concluded that the battery is likely operated by the United States, which uses Patriots to defend its naval sites in Bahrain.

The researchers were unable to say with confidence what caused the Patriot to explode. But they added that based on the available evidence, including the pattern and spread of damage on the ground, it appeared to have detonated mid-flight.

They concluded that it was possible the Patriot was aimed at a low-flying drone and that the combined explosion of the missile and drone ignited the blast, the analysis said.

“If this was the case, this was an irresponsible intercept attempt as it endangered the lives and the homes of allied civilians in a residential area,” the analysis said

This scenario matches what Bahrain’s government spokesperson said happened: that the Patriot intercepted an Iranian drone and both detonated in the air.

However, the analysis said, the direction of the damage and the lack of available evidence of a drone over the neighborhood suggested another scenario, that “the explosion was the result of the detonation of the warhead and unexpended propellant of a Patriot interceptor.”

Despite the claim by Bahrain, the researchers said it was less likely the missile made contact with a drone. Reuters could not independently verify the presence or not of an Iranian drone during the incident.

The analysis said that videos taken after the attack and photographs released by Bahrani authorities show that the blast damage was concentrated along four streets of Mahazza.

A Bahrain television news broadcast on March 9 and a government press release showed an extensively damaged home about 400 feet (120 meters) from the center of the main blast area, with interior photos showing holes in a wall created by shrapnel, the analysis said.

When all the damage is considered together, the Middlebury analysis noted, it matches what one would expect if a Patriot missile exploded in the air over a road intersection in the neighborhood. Pieces of the missile then flew about 120 meters farther and hit another house, the analysis said.

Robert Maher, an audio specialist who reviewed the video at the request of Reuters, said his analysis supports the approximate location of the explosion over the damaged homes.

In the video, a flash is seen about eight seconds in, but an explosion is never heard before the clip ends 19 seconds later. That’s because light travels faster than sound. Based on how long the sound would take to reach the person who shot the video, the explosion had to be more than four miles away. The damaged homes were about 4.6 miles (7.4 km) away, which fits with the timing.

Maher said that in the audio from the video he heard no drones or other missiles, although their sounds would have been faint or inaudible if they were more than four miles away from where the video was taken.

“I don’t see anything that is inconsistent with my observations from the audio,” Maher said after reviewing the Middlebury analysis.

Defense and industry officials say Patriot misfires are rare, but they do happen, including an errant missile in 2007 that hit a farm in Qatar.

In an X post on March 9, U.S. Central Command denounced Iranian and Russian news reports that said the incident in Mahazza was the result of a failed Patriot, calling it a “LIE.” It said an Iranian drone struck a residential neighborhood.

Reuters and the Middlebury researchers were unable to obtain or review any visual evidence of missile or drone fragments. Reuters attempted to contact witnesses in Bahrain, but several people declined to speak, citing fear of reprisals. Human Rights Watch has documented arrests of people in Bahrain during the war for posting videos on social media of attacks.

In the video of the suspect missile in flight, the Patriot appears to pass a much steeper smoke trail that the researchers said likely belonged to a first interceptor fired moments earlier.

Patriots are often fired in pairs to increase the chances that one hits the target. Neither the researchers or Reuters could establish what happened to the first missile.

The low trajectory of the second missile and its deviation from the route of the earlier launch could be signs of a possible problem, the researchers said. But they could not rule out the possibility that it was shot in that direction on purpose.

Bahrain’s spokesperson said any suggestion of malfunction or misfiring of the Patriots in Bahrain “was factually incorrect.”

The deployments of the USS Boxer, along with its 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit and accompanying warship, comes as Reuters reported that President Donald Trump’s administration was considering deploying thousands of U.S. troops to reinforce its operation in the Middle East.

Trump told reporters on Thursday that he was not putting troops “anywhere,” but that if was going to, he would not tell journalists.

The sources, who were speaking on the condition of anonymity, did not say what the role of the additional troops would be.

But one of the officials said the troops were departing the West Coast of the United States about 3 weeks ahead of schedule.

The White House and Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The deployments could help provide Trump with additional options as he weighs expanding U.S. operations, with the Iran war well into its third week.

Those options include securing safe passage for oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, a mission that would be accomplished primarily through air and naval forces, the sources said. But securing the Strait could also mean deploying U.S. troops to Iran’s shoreline, said four sources, including two U.S. officials.

Reuters granted the sources anonymity to speak about military planning.

The Trump administration has also discussed options to send ground forces to Iran’s Kharg Island, the hub for 90% of Iran’s ​oil exports, the three people familiar with the matter and three U.S. officials said. One of the officials said such an operation would be very risky. Iran has the ability to reach the island with missiles and drones.

The United States carried out strikes against military targets on the island on March 13 and Trump has threatened to also strike its critical oil infrastructure. However, given its vital role in Iran’s economy, controlling the island would likely be viewed as a better option than destroying it, military experts say.

Any use of U.S. ground troops — even for a limited mission — could pose significant political risks for Trump, given low support among the American public for the Iran campaign and Trump’s own campaign promises to avoid entangling the U.S. in new Middle East conflicts.

Trump administration officials have also discussed the possibility of deploying U.S. forces to secure Iran’s stocks of highly enriched uranium, one of the people familiar with the matter said.

The sources did not believe a deployment of ground forces anywhere in Iran was imminent but declined to discuss specifics of U.S. operational planning. Experts say the task of securing Iran’s uranium stockpiles would be highly complex and risky, even for U.S. special operations forces.

A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: “There has been no decision to send ground troops at this time, but President Trump wisely keeps all options at his disposal.

“The president is focused on achieving all of the defined objectives of Operation Epic Fury: destroy Iran’s ballistic missile capacity, annihilate their navy, ensure their terrorist proxies cannot destabilize the region, and guarantee that Iran can never possess a nuclear weapon.”

The Pentagon declined to comment.

The discussions come as the U.S. military continues to attack Iran’s navy, its missile and drone stockpiles and its defense industry.

The U.S. has carried out more than 7,800 strikes since launching the war on Feb. 28 and damaged or destroyed more than 120 Iranian vessels so far, according to a factsheet released on Wednesday by the U.S. Central Command, which oversees the roughly 50,000 U.S. troops in the Middle East.

US casualties

Trump has said his goals go beyond degrading Iran’s military capabilities and could include securing safe passage through the strait and preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.

Ground forces could help broaden his options to address those goals, but carry significant risk. Even without any direct conflict in Iran, 13 U.S. troops have been killed so far in the war and about 200 have been wounded, although the vast majority of the injuries have been minor, the U.S. military says.

For years, Trump has railed against his predecessors for getting involved in conflicts and has vowed to keep the United States out of foreign wars. But more recently he has refused to rule out the possibility of “boots on the ground” in Iran.

A senior White House official told Reuters that Trump has various options for acquiring Iran’s nuclear material but has not decided how to proceed. “Certainly there are ways in which it could be acquired,” the official said, adding: “He hasn’t made a decision yet.”

In written testimony to lawmakers on Wednesday, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said Iran’s nuclear enrichment program had been obliterated by strikes in June and the entrances to those underground facilities had been “buried and shuttered with cement.”

The sources said the discussions on U.S. reinforcements go beyond the arrival of an Amphibious Ready Group next week in the Middle East, with an attached Marine Expeditionary Unit that includes more than 2,000 Marines.

But one of the sources noted that the U.S. military was losing a significant number of forces with the decision to send the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier to Greece for maintenance after a fire on board the vessel.

Trump has also oscillated on whether the U.S. should secure the Strait of Hormuz.

After initially saying the U.S. Navy could escort vessels, he called on other countries to help open the key water way. With little interest from allies, Trump on Wednesday mused about simply leaving.

“I wonder what would happen if we ‘finished off’ what’s left of the Iranian Terror State, and let the Countries that use it, we don’t, be responsible for the so called ‘Strait?,’” Trump posted on Truth Social.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart, Idrees Ali, Erin Banco and Gram Slattery; additional reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Don Durfee and Rosalba O’Brien)

The carrier, America’s newest and the world’s largest, is currently located in the Red Sea. It is expected to temporarily go to Souda Bay on the Greek island of Crete, the two officials said.

The warship has been deployed for nine months, including taking part in operations against Venezuela in the Caribbean prior to arriving in the Middle East. The length of the deployment has raised questions about morale of the sailors on board and the readiness of the warship.

The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, did not say how long the Ford was expected to remain in Crete.

One of the officials said nearly 200 sailors were treated for smoke-related injuries when the fire broke out in the ship’s main laundry area. The fire took hours to bring under control and had an impact on roughly 100 sleeping berths.

One service member was flown off the ship for injuries, the official said.

The New York Times first reported the extent of the damage on board the warship. The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

After the fire initially broke out, the U.S. military had said that there was no damage to the ship’s propulsion plant and the aircraft carrier was fully operational.

The United States has carried out strikes against more than 7,000 targets since it started operations against Iran on Feb. 28.

The Ford, with more than 5,000 sailors aboard, has more than ​75 military aircraft, including fighter aircraft like the F-18 Super Hornets. The Ford has sophisticated radar that can help control air traffic and navigation.

The supporting ships, such as the Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser USS Normandy, Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers USS Thomas Hudner, USS Ramage, USS Carney and USS Roosevelt, include surface-to-air, surface-to-surface and anti-submarine warfare capabilities.

(Reporting by Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart; Editing by Howard Goller)

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy views the maritime weapon as a key pillar of its military strategy, according to a 2017 Office of Naval Intelligence report, and reportedly began laying mines in the sea passage last week.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a Pentagon briefing Friday, however, that there was “no clear evidence” of mines in the strait.

The US Navy decommissioned Middle East minesweepers last year. Here’s what they did.

Adm. Brad Cooper, head of U.S. Central Command, said Monday that U.S. forces destroyed storage bunkers for naval mines during a U.S. strike on military targets on Iran’s oil export hub, Kharg Island, on Friday. U.S. forces also destroyed 16 Iranian minelayers last week, according to CENTCOM.

Iran is estimated to possess roughly 6,000 mines, according to a congressional report published Wednesday. The stockpile may include limpet mines, which are typically attached to a ship manually by a diver; moored mines, which float below the water’s surface and are tethered to the seabed; bottom mines that rest on the seabed; and drifting mines, which float above the water’s surface and detonate upon contact.

Here’s a look at the U.S. Navy’s arsenal of minesweepers, littoral combat ships equipped with counter-mine capabilities and helicopters outfitted with anti-mine technology.

Avenger-class minesweepers

The Navy currently has four Avenger-class mine countermeasures ships stationed in Sasebo, Japan, that it could forward deploy to the Middle East in support of Operation Epic Fury if necessary.

The service commissioned 14 Avenger-class minesweepers beginning in the 1980s, but has since retired nearly all of them.

The service had four deployable minesweepers stationed in Bahrain up until 2025, but they were decommissioned and replaced with littoral combat ships equipped with minesweeping and mine-hunting capabilities. Each of the minesweepers decommissioned had served for over 30 years.

These vessels, which utilize sonar and tethered remote operating vehicles to identify mines beneath the water’s surface, were used during the Gulf War to destroy over 1,000 mines off of Kuwait.

Pentagon reportedly sending more warships and Marines to Middle East

They sweep and destroy mines by detonating them with an acoustic device that emits a noise meant to trigger sound-sensitive mines or with an electromagnetic tool that emits an electromagnetic field to trick magnetically induced mines into exploding.

They also drag cables and cutters behind them to intercept and sever the tethers attached to moored mines. Once the tether is cut, the mine floats to the top and is destroyed.

Minesweepers are constructed of wood and fiberglass in order to produce a nonmagnetic signature and low acoustic footprint that will not trigger mines to explode, allowing the vessels to operate inside and near a mine-threat zone.

Minesweepers also host two .50-caliber machine guns and two Mk 19 grenade launchers.

Independence-class littoral combat ships

The Navy has sought to modernize its minesweeping capabilities by rotating out its aging minesweepers in Bahrain for Independence-class littoral combat ships uniquely fitted with a mine countermeasures mission package.

The USS Canberra was the first LCS with the MCM mission package to arrive in the Middle East on May 22, 2025. The USS Santa Barbara and USS Tulsa, two other littoral combat ships with the MCM mission package, joined it shortly thereafter.

All three are homeported in Bahrain.

As of Monday, the USS Canberra was operating in the Indian Ocean, parts of which fall under the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility, the U.S. 5th Fleet told Military Times in an emailed statement.

The USS Santa Barbara and USS Tulsa were conducting brief logistical stops in Malaysia, according to the U.S. 5th Fleet.

“U.S. forces routinely make port calls in Malaysia as part of our operations,” the statement read.

The MCM mission package is used exclusively by Independence-class littoral combat ships.

Littoral combat ships are made of aluminum and do not possess the same unique ship architecture as the nondetectable minesweepers, and as a result, they can only operate outside a mine-threat zone.

The LCS employs unmanned surface and underwater vehicles to travel into an area where mines have been laid to discover and destroy the mines.

These unmanned vessels utilize the AN/AQS-20 mine-hunting sonar system, which is towed and uses sensors to pinpoint the location of bottom mines and moored mines.

There is also the unmanned influence sweep system, which provides common unmanned surface vehicles aboard the LCS with the ability to sweep or detonate mines through a magnetic sweep cable that emits a magnetic field or a towed acoustic device that emits sound.

The unmanned vehicle moves along a predetermined route but sends camera footage and radar readings back to a remote operator who can steer the vehicle away from obstacles underwater.

The littoral combat ships with the MCM mission package have yet to be deployed in combat.

The ships have a noticeably upgraded weapons package, compared to the Avenger-class mine countermeasures ships, including a 57mm MK-110 gun system, SeaRAM self-defense system and .50-caliber machine guns.

Helicopters

The Independence-class littoral combat ship’s MCM mission package includes the aerial capabilities of the Sikorsky MH-60S Seahawk helicopter, which can deploy from the LCS to assist with mine hunting and minesweeping.

These helicopters are equipped with the AN/AES-1 Airborne Laser Mine Detection System, which detects floating and near-surface moored mines, as well as the AN/ASQ-235 Airborne Mine-Neutralization System, which sends an expendable unmanned underwater vehicle to intercept and destroy a mine.

Prior to the MCM mission package, Sikorsky’s MH-53E Sea Dragon helicopter served as the Navy’s main counter-mine aircraft, which was deployed during the Gulf War to help destroy mines and clear shipping lanes in the Persian Gulf.

The MH-53E uses side-scan AQS-14A mine-hunting sonar to identify mines and can tow the Mark 105 Hydrofoil Magnetic Minesweeping Sled and the Mk-103 mechanical minesweeping system to destroy mines.

The helicopter is currently out of production, with 28 aircraft in operation, according to the Naval Air Systems Command website.

The Navy is in the process of “evaluating its requirement” for future airborne mine countermeasures missions after 2025, the website states.

The U.S. military’s Central Command said the vast majority of those wounded had suffered minor injuries and 180 troops had already returned to duty. Ten of the injuries are serious, it said.

Troops had been injured in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Bahrain, Iraq, and Israel, Central Command added.

Thirteen U.S. troops have been killed since Iran launched strikes against U.S. military bases following ⁠the start of the conflict on Feb. 28.

Iranian attacks have also struck diplomatic missions, hotels and airports, and damaged energy infrastructure in Arab Gulf states.

Last week, Reuters reported that as many as 150 U.S. troops had been wounded in the conflict, highlighting the danger from Iranian strikes.

The United States, meanwhile, has carried out strikes against more than 7,000 targets in Iran.

About a dozen MQ-9 drones have been destroyed in the war, said a U.S. official on Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle can loiter at altitudes of around 50,000 feet for more than 27 hours, gathering intelligence with sophisticated cameras, sensors and radars.

The Reaper, which entered service with the U.S. Air Force 16 years ago, can be equipped with weapons such as air-to-ground missiles.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Rosalba O’Brien)

Writing on Truth Social, Trump said that at his direction, Central Command “executed one of the most powerful bombing raids in the History of the Middle East, and totally obliterated every MILITARY target in Iran’s crown jewel, Kharg Island.”

The president said he refrained from wiping out the oil infrastructure on the island, but warned, “should Iran, or anyone else, do anything to interfere with the Free and Safe Passage of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz, I will immediately reconsider this decision.”

Details of exactly what happened on Kharg Island remain unclear but the military gambit outlined by Trump appears to come, at least in part, in response to an earlier statement from Iran’s newly appointed supreme leader, saying that the Islamic Republic would seek to keep the Strait of Hormuz blocked.

Mojtaba Khamenei made the defiant order in a written statement that was read out on Iranian state television. He has yet to be seen in public since being elevated to his current role after his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed on Feb. 28.

More than a dozen ships have reportedly been attacked in the Persian Gulf since the start of the conflict. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which declared that any vessel attempting to pass through the strait would be targeted, has claimed responsibility for several of those ambushes.

The supreme leader described the siege of the shipping channel as a “lever” to exert pressure on the nation’s adversaries. The strait is a vital maritime artery, carrying roughly 20% of the world’s petroleum liquids and liquefied natural gas trade.

By snarling shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, Iran has sent Brent crude oil futures soaring past $100 a barrel for the first time since 2022, up from approximately $70 before the war began.

Experts say the Iranian strategy, if not effectively countered, is capable of sowing chaos in the Gulf — with serious ramification for the wider world.

“These strikes target commercial vessels regardless of flag or ownership, including neutral of third-party ships and those connected to Gulf neighbors, fueling widespread fear and uncertainty,” Scarlett Suarez, a senior intelligence analyst at Dryad Global, a maritime research firm, said in an interview with Military Times. “Disruption is achieved through indiscriminate asymmetric attacks.”

During the 1980s “Tanker War” phase of the Iran-Iraq War, the Islamic Republic mined waters in and around the Strait of Hormuz. In 1988, an Iranian mine severely damaged the guided-missile frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts in the Persian Gulf, prompting a major American retaliation, known as Operation Praying Mantis, in which several Iranian vessels and two oil platforms were destroyed.

Tehran’s strategy relies on asymmetric naval warfare, oscillating between the use of fast-attack boats, unmanned vessels, drones, shore-based missile batteries and an array of sea mines.

“It’s a multidimensional threat,” Ret. Navy Capt. Bill Hamblet, now the U.S. Naval Institute’s editor-in-chief of “Proceedings,” told Military Times. “Finding the mines, clearing the mines, that’s a slow, methodical, mechanical process. And then protecting the mine-clearing operation from the other threats that could come out while they are trying to do that.”

Hamblet explained that these additional threats include not only drones and missiles, but also small, nimble attack craft.

“They arm them up with either small missiles or machine guns, and those boats can go at up to 50 knots. So, you need to be able to defend against those threats while clearing mines or escorting merchant ships,” he said.

The Islamic Republic possesses between 5,000 and 6,000 naval mines, according to a congressional report released in 2025. The arsenal includes limpet mines, which are attached directly to a ship’s hull; moored mines, which float beneath the surface and detonate on contact; and bottom mines, which rest on the seafloor and explode when they detect a passing vessel.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, in a briefing at the Pentagon on Friday, told reporters there is “no clear evidence” that Iran has placed new mines in the Strait of Hormuz.

“As the world is seeing, they are exercising sheer desperation in the Strait of Hormuz,” he said. “Something we’re dealing with, we have been dealing with it.”

Hegseth added: “Don’t need to worry about it.”

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly approved a request from U.S. Central Command for an element of an amphibious ready group and attached Marine Expeditionary Unit to help combat Iran’s regional attacks, the Wall Street Journal first reported Friday.

The supplemental forces would include up to 5,000 personnel and several warships, including the USS Tripoli, which is on its way to the Middle East from its homeport in Sasebo, Japan, the report said.

The Tripoli Amphibious Ready Group includes the America-class amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli, the San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ships USS New Orleans and USS San Diego and the embarked 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit.

The 31st MEU, meanwhile, includes a ground combat element, which features a battalion landing team — an infantry battalion and combat support elements — of around 1,100 Marines and sailors.

Also included is the aviation combat element, which features tiltrotor and fixed-wing aircraft, transport and attack helicopters, ground support assets and air defense teams.

A combat logistics battalion with equipment and personnel capable of sustaining a MEU in austere environments for up to 15 days will also join the effort. This group includes medical, supply and explosive ordnance personnel, among others.

Requests for comment from the Pentagon and CENTCOM were not returned as of press time. The Navy told Military Times it would not be commenting.

The deployment of the Tripoli Amphibious Ready Group comes less than a year after a Military Times report found the readiness rate of the Navy’s amphibious assault ships had dropped to just 41% amid the Trump administration’s ramped-up effort to combat drug cartels in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The readiness issue at the time resulted in a more than five-month gap in MEU deployments.

Despite any strain, the U.S. continues to ramp up attacks on the Islamic Republic.

CENTCOM on Thursday said that American forces have struck roughly 6,000 targets inside Iran since the war began. More than 60 Iranian ships and over 30 minelayers have also been eliminated, CENTCOM announced.

Pentagon officials told senators in a classified briefing this week that the first six days of Operation Epic Fury cost American taxpayers an estimated $11.3 billion, according to a person familiar with the session.

The figure, however, omitted a range of war-related expenses, indicating the overall total is likely to rise.

An incident Thursday saw U.S. deaths in the Iran war nearly double after a U.S. Air Force KC-135 refueling aircraft crashed during ongoing combat operations.

All six crew members were killed in the crash, which was not caused by hostile or friendly fire, CENTCOM confirmed Friday. Two aircraft were reportedly involved in the incident, officials said, with the second aircraft landing safely.

A total of 13 U.S. service members have been killed during combat actions and roughly 140 more wounded — eight severely — across the opening two weeks of Operation Epic Fury.

“We know the new so-called, not-so-supreme leader, is wounded and likely disfigured,” Hegseth told reporters during a press briefing. He described Khamenei’s first public statement since his elevation — delivered as a written message read aloud on Iranian state television — as “a weak one,” underscoring that the supreme leader did not appear on video or release an audio recording.

Khamenei has remained out of view since his selection on Sunday by Iran’s clerical establishment. In his missive, he vowed to “avenge the blood” of Iranians killed in the strikes.

Hegseth asserted American and Israeli forces have hit more than 15,000 targets since the war with Iran began, and he pledged the U.S. would escalate its bombing campaign even further on Friday.

“Today will be, yet again, the highest volume of strikes that America has put over the skies of Iran,” he said. ”The number of sorties, the number of bomber pulses. Ramping up, and only up."

Hegseth said that just one percent of the weapons expected to be used in the ongoing campaign will be the costly long-range standoff munitions which are among the most expensive armaments in the U.S. arsenal.

The rest, he said, will be conventional weapons, of which the U.S. has “a plethora.” The comment appeared aimed at quelling concerns that the war has rapidly depleted critical American munitions stockpiles.

“We are on plan to defeat, destroy, disable all of their meaningful military capabilities,” Hegseth continued. “They also don’t have the ability to build more.”

Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, echoed Hegseth’s promise that the U.S. was in the process of conducting its heaviest day of kinetic fires. But he cautioned, “This mission remains complex, dangerous and difficult — and every service member has a family waiting for them to return home."

Soon after the briefing, Central Command confirmed that all six U.S. service members aboard an Air Force KC-135 refueling aircraft were killed after it crashed in Iraq on Thursday while supporting operations in Iran.

“The circumstances of the incident are under investigation,” CENTCOM wrote in a post on X. “However, the loss of the aircraft was not due to hostile fire or friendly fire.”

The deaths bring the number of U.S. service members killed in operations related to Epic Fury to at least 13.

“All six crew members aboard a U.S. KC-135 refueling aircraft that went down in western Iraq are now confirmed deceased,” CENTCOM announced. “The aircraft was lost while flying over friendly airspace March 12 during Operation Epic Fury.”

In a press briefing Friday alongside Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Dan Caine stated the crash occurred “while the crew was on a combat mission.”

Two aircraft were reportedly involved in the incident, officials said Thursday, with the second aircraft landing safely.

“[It] was not the result of hostile or friendly fire,” Caine added.

The circumstances of the crash are under investigation.

“We are devastated by the loss of our airmen supporting Operation Epic Fury and extend our condolences to their families and communities affected,” U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Ken Wilsbach said. “Our warfighters answered the nation’s call — we will honor their sacrifice as we continue to fight until the job is done.”

Numerous KC-135s are currently deployed to the U.S. Central Command area of operations, where crews have provided aerial refueling for other aircraft as a part of Operation Epic Fury.

The downed KC-135 is the fourth manned U.S. aircraft to be lost this month amid combat operations against the Islamic Republic.

On March 1, three U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jets were shot down by a Kuwaiti F/A-18 in a friendly fire incident, U.S. Central Command announced at the time. All six F-15 crew members ejected and were safely recovered.

A total of 13 U.S. service members have been killed during combat actions and roughly 140 more wounded — eight severely — across the opening two weeks of Operation Epic Fury.

Another service member, an Army National Guard officer who also served as a New York City policeman, died on March 6 following a non-combat incident.

Identities of the deceased KC-135 crew members are being withheld until 24 hours after next of kin notification.

“Our service members make an incredible sacrifice to go forward and do the things that the nation asks of them,” Caine said. “It’s a reminder of the true cost of the dedication and commitment of the joint force.”

All six crew members were killed, according to the statement.

Two aircraft were reportedly involved in the incident, the statement read, and “one of the aircraft went down.” The second aircraft landed safely, it added.

“The incident was not due to hostile fire or friendly fire,” the release said.

The initial CENTCOM statement did not clarify whether the aircraft had crashed, noting only that “U.S. Central Command is aware of the loss a U.S. KC-135.”

Numerous KC-135s are currently deployed to the U.S. Central Command area of operations, where crews have provided aerial refueling for other aircraft as a part of Operation Epic Fury.

The downed KC-135 is the fourth manned U.S. aircraft to be lost this month amid combat operations against the Islamic Republic.

On March 1, three U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jets were shot down by a Kuwaiti F/A-18 in a friendly fire incident, U.S. Central Command announced at the time.

All six F-15 crew members ejected and were safely recovered.

A total of 13 U.S. service members have been killed during combat actions and roughly 140 more wounded — eight severely — across the opening two weeks of Operation Epic Fury.

Another service member, an Army National Guard officer who also served as a New York City policeman, died on March 6 following a non-combat incident.

Additional information regarding the incident Thursday was not yet available as of press time.

“We ask for continued patience to gather additional details and provide clarity for the families of service members,” the CENTCOM statement read.

The soldier was officially identified as Chief Warrant Officer 3 Robert Marzan, 54, of Spotsylvania, Virginia. The Pentagon announced March 4 that Marzan was “believed to be” the sixth casualty, but a medical examiner had to confirm his identity.

Marzan’s remains, as well as those of the five other service members killed in the same attack, were returned to the U.S. on March 7.

The other service members killed were Capt. Cody Khork, 35, Sgt. 1st Class Noah Tietjens, 42, Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Amor, 39, Sgt. Declan Coady, 20, and Maj. Jeffrey O’Brien, 45.

All of the soldiers were assigned to the 103rd Sustainment Command out of Des Moines, Iowa.

The six soldiers were the first American casualties of Operation Epic Fury, the ongoing U.S. and Israeli military campaign against Iran.

A seventh U.S. soldier was killed in action during the conflict after succumbing to his wounds March 8. Sgt. Benjamin Pennington, 26, of Glendale, Kentucky, was injured during a March 1 enemy attack at Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia.

Pennington was assigned to 1st Space Battalion, 1st Space Brigade, at Fort Carson, Colorado.

Marzan enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1990, and then transferred to the Army Reserve in 1994. He deployed to Croatia and Bosnia in 1996 and Egypt and Kuwait from 2019 to 2020.

His awards include the Bronze Star Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Joint Service Achievement Medal, Army Achievement Medal, NATO Medal, Army Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal with Bronze Service Star, Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Armed Forces Service Medal, NCO Professional Development Ribbon, Army Service Ribbon, Overseas Service Ribbon, Army Reserve Component Overseas Training Ribbon and the Multinational Force and Observers Medal.

As the war enters its 12th day, Cooper took to X to provide updates on Operation Epic fury and the ongoing American attacks in Iran.

“We also took out the last of four Soleimani-class warships,” Cooper said. “That’s an entire class of Iranian ships now out of the fight.”

The first of the guided missile Iranian catamarans were delivered to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy in 2022, and were the first Iranian warships to possess vertical launch systems capable of medium-range surface-to-air missiles, according to the U.S. Naval Institute.

To date, the U.S. has struck more than 5,500 targets inside Iran, said Cooper.

The offensive assault is not letting up either.

According to Cooper, on March 10 the U.S. military launched “strike waves nearly every hour from different locations and directions going into Iran,” with the U.S. bomber force taking out a large ballistic missile manufacturing facility.

US destroys 16 Iranian mine-laying boats, CENTCOM claims

The military strikes — which the commander described as “unpredictable, dynamic and decisive” — will continue to target Iran’s defense industrial base.

The objective of Operation Epic Fury, Cooper reiterated, is to end Iran’s ability to project power and harass shipping.

On Wednesday, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations announced on X that three shipping vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz were hit by an unknown projectile.

U.S. Central Command issued a warning several hours later, cautioning civilians that the Iranian regime was using civilian ports along the Strait of Hormuz to conduct military operations.

“Civilian ports used for military purposes lose protected status and become legitimate military targets under international law,” a CENTCOM press release said.

A high-ranking member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned last week that any vessels traveling through the 100-mile long sea passage would be targeted and met with lethal force, according to Iranian media.

Since Operation Epic Fury began on Feb. 28, roughly 140 troops have been wounded — eight severely — the Pentagon announced Tuesday.

Seven service members have been killed in action so far.

Six died when an Iranian one-way attack drone struck a makeshift operations center at a civilian port in Kuwait on March 1.

Another service member died on March 8 after succumbing to injuries that he sustained on March 1 after Iran attacked Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia.

Shifting comments from the Republican president and his top aides are adding to the precariousness of the 12-day-old conflict, which is impacting nearly every corner of the Middle East and causing economic tremors around the globe. With neither side budging, the war is now on an unpredictable path — one in which a credible endgame is still unclear.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday told reporters it’s up to Trump “whether it’s the beginning, the middle or the end” of the war. Trump, during the course of one speech at a House Republican gathering on Monday, went from calling the war a “short-term excursion” that could end soon to proclaiming “we haven’t won enough.”

The vacillation has fueled criticism from those who say Trump lacks a clear goal.

“They didn’t have a plan,” Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., told reporters. ”They have no timeline. And because of that, they have no exit strategy.”

A constantly shifting goal line

Since ordering the Iran bombardment, Trump has continually shifted his timelines and goals for his war against Iran, a crosscurrent of rhetoric that has delivered more questions than answers.

Over the last few days, Trump has called for the “unconditional surrender” of Iran’s leaders, while suggesting he’s already succeeded in achieving his objective of decimating Iran’s military.

At the same time, Trump’s team has sought to soothe anxious Americans that this won’t be a long, drawn-out conflict, even as the president has insisted he hasn’t ruled out the option of putting U.S. boots on the ground.

The U.S. military says that it has effectively destroyed the Iranian navy and made huge strides in defanging Iran’s ability to launch missiles and drones at its neighbors throughout the region.

And yet, the critical Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly 20% of the world’s oil passes on a typical day, remains effectively closed to business, and Iranian leaders remain unbowed.

The Revolutionary Guard vowed Iran would not allow “a single liter of oil” through the vital waterway until the United States stops its bombing campaign. And Ali Larijani, Iran’s top national security official, offered a menacing message on Tuesday after Trump had threatened to attack Iran “TWENTY TIMES HARDER” if Tehran stopped oil flowing through the strait.

“The sacrificial nation of Iran doesn’t fear your empty threats,” Larijani wrote on X. “Even those bigger than you couldn’t eliminate Iran. Be careful not to get eliminated yourself.”

Making the case to Americans

Trump has struggled to make his case to Americans about why preemptive action against Iran was necessary and how it squares with his pledge to keep America out of the “forever wars” of the last two decades that he’s bemoaned for costing too much money and too many American lives.

Thus far, seven U.S. troops have been killed and about 140 injured in the retaliatory salvos from Iran throughout the region. An eighth service member died on March 6 following a non-combat incident, the Pentagon said.

One of several reasons Trump has offered to justify launching the war is that he had a “feeling” that Iran was getting set to attack the United States.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt slightly amended that position, telling reporters that the president “had a feeling” that was “based on fact.”

However, Pentagon officials in private briefings have told congressional staffers that the U.S. does not have intelligence indicating that Iran was planning to preemptively attack the U.S.

Recent polling shows Trump’s decision to attack Iran hasn’t come with the rallying-around-the-flag effect that has typically accompanied the start of recent U.S. wars.

About half of voters in Quinnipiac and Fox News polls said the U.S. military action in Iran makes the U.S. “less safe,” while only about 3 in 10 in each poll said it made the country safer. A CNN poll found about half of U.S. adults thought the military action would make Iran “more of a threat” to the U.S., while only about 3 in 10 thought it would lessen the danger.

In that CNN poll, about 6 in 10 U.S. adults said they trusted Trump “not much” or “not at all” to make the right decisions about the U.S. use of force in Iran.

European allies are treading carefully after British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez faced the wrath of Trump, who deemed them not sufficiently supportive in backing his war of choice.

But even German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who has been broadly supportive of the U.S.-Israeli campaign against Iran, said on Tuesday that “more questions arise with every day of war.”

“Above all, we’re concerned that there is apparently no joint plan for how this war can be brought quickly to a convincing end,” Merz said.

Merz stressed that “Germany and Europe have no interest in an endless war” or in Iran’s territorial integrity disintegrating.

Deflecting responsibility for school bombing

The president has chosen to deflect responsibility for the bombing of a girls’ school in southern Iran on the first day of the conflict, a strike that killed at least 165 people.

Trump on Saturday blamed the attack on Iran, saying its security forces are “very inaccurate” with munitions.

On Monday, after the investigative group Bellingcat posted verified video that showed a U.S. Tomahawk cruise missile hitting a Revolutionary Guard facility near the school, causing the explosion, Trump again insisted it could have been Iran’s fault but said that he would accept whatever an ongoing U.S. investigation into the matter might find.

The president erroneously claimed that Tehran had access to Tomahawks, a U.S.-manufactured weapon system that is only available to the U.S. and a few close allies.

Asked by a reporter, Leavitt didn’t directly answer why Trump falsely asserted that Iran has access to the U.S.-made missile.

Instead, she responded in part that “the president has a right to share his opinions with the American public” while noting “he has said he’ll accept the conclusion of that investigation.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters that Trump’s claim “is beyond asinine.”

“Again, he says whatever pops into his head no matter what the truth is,” Schumer said. “And we all know he lies, but on something as formidable as this, it’s appalling.”

Sen. Kevin Cramer, a North Dakota Republican, was among Trump allies gently making the case that it was important for the Trump administration to clarify what happened to the school.

Cramer said the military must “do everything you can to eliminate those mistakes going forward.”

“But you also can’t undo it,” he added.