CENTCOM says Iran threat 'diminished' not gone

Adm. Brad Cooper, the commander of U.S. Central Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee on May 14 that Iran’s military threat had been reduced but not erased after the U.S. campaign known as Operation Epic Fury. Cooper said the United States had achieved its military objectives in less than 40 days and had sharply cut Iran’s ability to project power beyond its borders. He also said Iran still retained some capacity to conduct strikes in the region. A May 19 social-media post recirculated that assessment, but the underlying remarks were delivered in Washington five days earlier. ### When did Cooper actually make the remark? May 14 is the date of the testimony in which Cooper used the formulation that Iran’s threat was reduced but not gone. Military Times, citing Cooper’s appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee, reported that he said America’s 38-day bombing campaign had “diminished” Iran’s ability to threaten global security “but has not yet eliminated the threat altogether.” (militarytimes.com) Washington was the setting for that hearing, which was tied to force posture in the region and CENTCOM’s portion of the fiscal 2027 budget request, according to a Defense Department news account. That account said the discussion focused heavily on Operation Epic Fury and Cooper’s assessment of its results. (militarytimes.com) ### What did Cooper say Iran can still do? Cooper told lawmakers Iran still possessed “a very moderate, if not small, capability” to strike regional neighbors, according to the May 14 report. He described Iran as “a very large country” and said the threat had been degraded rather than fully removed. (war.gov) The same testimony said Iran’s ability to disrupt commerce in the Strait of Hormuz had been “dramatically degraded,” though Cooper added that Iranian threats were still being heard by the shipping and insurance industries. Military Times reported that he said Tehran no longer threatened regional partners or the United States in the same ways it had before the campaign. (militarytimes.com) ### What is Operation Epic Fury? Feb. 28, 2026 was the launch date for Operation Epic Fury, according to CENTCOM fact sheets and the command’s operations page. CENTCOM said the operation began at the direction of the president and targeted Iran’s security apparatus, including sites judged to pose an imminent threat. (militarytimes.com) April 1 fact sheets from the Defense Department said the campaign had involved more than 12,300 targets struck and more than 13,000 combat flights by that point. The same material said the operation was aimed at missile, drone, naval and command-and-control capabilities. ### How far did Cooper say U.S. forces had gone? (media.defense.gov) Ninety percent was the figure Cooper used repeatedly for the destruction of Iran’s defense industrial base, according to the May 14 coverage. He said Iran no longer had the conventional missile capacity to attack at the scale seen in earlier strikes on Israel and said its navy would take years to rebuild. (media.defense.gov) Military Times reported that Cooper also said U.S. forces had eliminated roughly 90% of Iran’s inventory of more than 8,000 naval mines. He declined to discuss specific intelligence assessments that differed from the administration’s broader claims, but said open-source numbers circulating publicly were not accurate. (war.gov) ### Why did the quote surface again on May 19? May 19 is when the quote spread on X in a post that attributed the assessment to CENTCOM, but the available reporting ties the wording to Cooper’s Senate testimony on May 14. CENTCOM maintains an official social-media directory and a dedicated Operation Epic Fury page, but the verified public material available in this review points back to the congressional hearing rather than a new May 19 statement. (militarytimes.com) March 31 was the latest dated item visible on CENTCOM’s public statements page in the material reviewed here, while the operation page remained active with videos and fact sheets. For the next official update, the most direct public sources are CENTCOM’s statements page, its Epic Fury operations page, and any future congressional appearances by Cooper or Pentagon officials. (centcom.mil 1) (centcom.mil 2)