During a briefing with journalists, IDF International Spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said, “We do feel like we’ve had great achievements with a lot of the things we prioritized as top targets. But there’s always more, and we have more.”
Shoshani confirmed that on Wednesday, the IDF struck the Iranian regime’s underwater research center in Isfahan, significantly limiting its ability to manufacture new and advanced submarines and upgrade its existing fleet.
The entire operation follows a structured strategic framework, he said, focusing on targeting military industries, weapons and missile production facilities, and surface-to-air missile systems.
The Israeli Air Force operates continuously within Iranian airspace, systematically striking thousands of regime targets, Shoshani said.
“Dozens of Israeli Air Force craft every day go back and forth acting on IDF intelligence amid complete waves after waves of strikes targeting Iranian terror regime infrastructure,” he added.
Key Iranian regime command centers in Tehran have been hit in recent days, as well as Iranian intelligence organizations, Shoshani said. Targets also include weapons storage facilities and ballistic missile storage and launch sites.
Data tracked by the IDF continues to show joint operational success by Israeli and American forces in heavily suppressing the volume of Iranian ballistic missile fire, Shoshani said.
“Since the third, fourth day of the operation, the numbers have been high single-digit to low teens with an average of approximately 10 [Iranian missiles],” Shoshani stated. “This is not something random and it is part of relentless efforts in Iranian skies by the IDF and the U.S. Armed Forces.”
US planning for Strait of Hormuz security
Also on Thursday, a military official provided further background on the elimination of senior leadership of the IRGC Navy, including its commander, Alireza Tangsiri, and the IRGC naval intelligence chief, in strikes in the port city of Bandar Abbas.
On Wednesday, during a webinar hosted by the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA), a Washington-based defense policy think tank, United States Marine Corps Gen. Frank McKenzie (ret.), the former commander of CENTCOM and a JINSA distinguished fellow, said:
“This is not something that we’re drawing up on the back of the envelope day to day. These are things that have been studied for many years, were fine-tuned for many years, and were simulated war-gamed every way that you can. We’ve examined this problem. I have some responsibility for this plan, as does my predecessor, as does my successor. But we’ve been working on this for a long time.”
“I think we’re accomplishing the objectives that we set out. CENTCOM is executing a long, prepared campaign plan,” McKenzie said. The suppression of the ballistic threat remains paramount, he added.
Referring to the Iranian ambition of firing hundreds of missiles per volley at U.S. bases, Gulf allies, and Israel, he said, “Largely we have denied them the ability to do that.”
“We’ve been able to take out Iranian air defenses to the degree that I would argue we have effectively air superiority over most of Iran. And what that has given us the opportunity to do is go hunt for ballistic missiles.”
Addressing the threat to the Strait of Hormuz, McKenzie noted that the U.S. is focusing on steps to clear the strait, including removing Iranian submarines, fast attack craft, and anti-ship cruise missiles.
Noting that there are actually two Iranian navies (the standard Iranian Navy and the IRGC naval branch), McKenzie said, “I think both those navies in terms of large combatants are largely gone. We struck them all. So what we’re—I think what we’re doing now is we’re focusing on preparatory steps in order to clear the Strait of Hormuz.”
This would involve neutralizing Iran’s remaining naval threats that could disrupt shipping, including submarines, fast attack craft, and small swarm boats operating along the Iranian coastline, as well as coastal anti-ship missile systems positioned to target vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz, he said.
“You go after those with slow-moving aircraft, perhaps A-10s or attack helicopters, and perhaps attack them from across the gulf. A variety of weapons systems that we can employ to get after those targets. Also, short-range Iranian anti-ship cruise missiles that have been built, targeted, and dug in on the north, on the northern edge of the littoral.”
The former CENTCOM commander stressed that “you don’t have to clear the whole Strait of Hormuz. You’ve got to clear a route that you’re going to bring vessels through. So you’re not clearing every bit of water up there.”
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