Admiral Brad Cooper, CENTCOM Commander, stated on 25 March that the US has struck over 10,000 targets in Iran, up from 9,000 two days earlier, and has destroyed or damaged two-thirds of Iran's missile, drone, and naval production capacity. Ninety-two percent of Iran's largest naval vessels have been damaged or destroyed. Iran's missile and drone attack rate is down 90% from the war's first week.1 Cooper described Iran's military chiefs as hiding 'in deep bunkers' while frontline troops remain exposed, and characterised 300-plus Iranian strikes on civilian sites as 'a sign of desperation.'
The figures warrant scrutiny against field reporting. Israel continues to detect multiple missile waves daily. Al Jazeera reported Iranian attacks 'increasing in number and intensity' on Day 27. A 90% drop in production capacity and an increase in operational tempo are not necessarily contradictory: Iran may be firing remaining stockpiles faster than it is producing replacements. CENTCOM may be measuring production capacity while Israeli defence systems measure operational tempo. The discrepancy between CENTCOM's narrative of a broken enemy and the ongoing threat to Israeli cities is worth watching carefully.
The CENTCOM strike count increase from 9,000 to 10,000-plus in approximately two days implies a strike rate of approximately 500 targets per day, an acceleration from earlier in the campaign. The killing of Tangsiri and Rezaei in Bandar Abbas this week is consistent with a campaign now targeting the final layers of IRGC naval command structure.
