Pete Hegseth: ‘We’ve Decided To Share the Ocean With Iran. We’ve Given Them the Bottom Half’

The U.S. military has now sunk more than 120 Iranian naval vessels during Operation Epic Fury, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced Tuesday, dropping one of his classic zingers: "We’ve decided to share the ocean with Iran. We've given them the bottom half."

As the conflict rolls into its 20th day, pretty much all of Tehran's meaningful sea power has been wiped out, Hegseth added during a morning press briefing at the Pentagon.

"We've damaged or sunk over 120 of their navy ships with battle damage assessments pending for many more," Hegseth said, pointing out that the tally of destroyed vessels is only going to climb in the days ahead. "Their surface fleet is no longer a factor. The submarines they once had, 11 are gone. Their military ports are crippled."

Before Operation Epic Fury kicked off, the Islamic Republic boasted a submarine force of roughly 28 to 30 vessels, per the Nuclear Threat Initiative, so U.S. strikes have already taken out about a third of Tehran's underwater fleet.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, who appeared alongside Hegseth, noted that at least 44 Iranian mine-laying vessels are now out of commission, which seriously guts Tehran's ability to threaten the vital Strait of Hormuz shipping lane.

U.S. forces dropped 5,000-pound bunker buster bombs onto underground bunkers, blocking the regime from reaching its stored weapons reserves. Those munitions slammed "into underground storage facilities storing coastal defense cruise missiles and other support equipment," Caine said.

"These weapons are bespokely [sic] designed to get through concrete and or rocks, and function after penetrating those barriers," Caine explained. "We continue to hunt and kill mine storage facilities and naval ammunition depots."

U.S. aircraft are "flying farther" into Iran every day as operations push eastward, Caine said, "penetrating deeper into Iranian airspace to hunt and kill one-way attack garrisons," a reference to the very drones Iran relies on to saturate and overwhelm air defenses in the region.

Along with the A-10 Warthog, the United States has brought AH-64 Apache attack helicopters into the fight along Iran's southern flank, plus they're hitting Iran-backed militia groups in Iraq.

"AH-64 Apaches have joined the fight on the southern flank, and they continue to work on the southern side, and that includes some of our allies who are using Apaches to handle one-way attack drones in Iraq," Caine said. "AH-64s have been striking against Iranian-aligned militia groups to make sure that we suppress any threat in Iraq against us."

All told, the United States has bombed more than 7,000 targets across Iran since the war started, and Thursday's operations will feature "the largest strike package yet," Hegseth said. "As I've said, from day one, our capabilities continue to build, Iran's continue to degrade."

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