The Pentagon is considering renaming any resumed Iran campaign Operation Sledgehammer, two US officials told NBC News on Tuesday 12 May. The stated rationale is procedural: a new named operation creates an untested argument that the War Powers Resolution's 60-day congressional-authorisation clock restarts from zero, displacing the exposure left by Operation Epic Fury, the original US Iran operation whose clock ran from 28 February and lapsed on 29 April without authorisation. The War Powers Resolution is the 1973 statute that requires a presidential withdrawal from hostilities within 60 days unless Congress votes authorisation.
The rename sits on top of Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth's sworn Senate Armed Services Committee testimony on 12 May that Article 2 of the US Constitution covers the strikes and no Authorisation for the Use of Military Force is required. Hegseth's Article 2 claim is the primary cover; Sledgehammer is the fallback if a federal court or a House majority forces accountability. Senator Lisa Murkowski's Iran AUMF has stayed unfiled since Hegseth destroyed its rationale, removing the only Republican-led legislative vehicle that would have constrained The Administration.
The White House presidential-actions index recorded zero signed Iran instruments on 12-13 May, the deliberate documentary silence that lets executive lawyers argue any future operation is a new matter. The House came within one vote of breaking that silence: the seventh war-powers resolution tied 212-212 on 14 May. Sledgehammer's purpose is to make that vote moot before it happens again. Declare EPIC FURY ended, name the next campaign, argue the clock starts again.
