Pete Hegseth says US escalates Iran campaign with additional forces

More U.S. forces are heading to the Middle East as the United States ramps up its campaign against Iran, according to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine.

“The flow of forces continues today. In fact, Admiral Cooper will receive additional forces even today,” Caine said, referring to Central Command chief Admiral Brad Cooper at a Pentagon briefing Monday morning.

Caine refused to give troop numbers, saying: “I don’t want to talk about the details because that would alert the enemy. We’re just getting more tactical airflow into the operation based on the time it takes to get there.”

““I think we’re right where we want to be in terms of Admiral Cooper’s total combat capability and total combat power.”

The additional forces were built on a month-long repositioning of U.S. assets in the region, including aircraft carrier strike groups, advanced fighter jets and air defense systems, as Caine said he conducted what officials described as “major combat operations” that resulted in 555 Iranian deaths as of Monday morning, according to The Associated Press.

Caine said the US mission in Iran is to “deny Iran’s ability to project power beyond its borders.”

“This is not a war of so-called regime change, but the regime has certainly changed, and the world today is better off for it,” Secretary of War Pete Hegseth added.

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The mission is to destroy Iran’s missiles and missile production, destroy its navy and ensure it does not have the ability to pursue nuclear weapons, Hegseth said.

The general warned that the operation “will take some time” and said, “We expect to take additional casualties.” Four US soldiers were killed in the operation, which began in the early hours of Saturday Eastern Time.

The soldiers were hit by an Iranian missile that penetrated air defenses at the tactical command center, Hegseth said.

Smoke rises in Tehran after the explosion that occurred on March 2, 2026, during the ongoing military attacks of the USA and Israel. (Majid Saeedi/Getty Images)

Asked if there were American boots on the ground in Iran, Hegseth answered “no” but said the administration would not wire about future options.

Hegseth said “one of the fallacies” is that “this department, presidents or others should be saying to the American people — and our enemies, by the way — ‘this is exactly what we’re going to do.'” “This is stupid.”

More than 100 aircraft, including fighter jets, tankers, electronic attack planes, bombers and unmanned platforms, were launched in a synchronized wave from land and sea at the start of the operation, known as Epic Fury, Caine said. He said U.S. cyber and space forces first conducted non-kinetic operations designed to disrupt and weaken Iran’s ability to communicate and respond.

Tomahawk missiles fired from US Navy ships hit Iranian naval forces on the southern flank, while coordinated precision strikes targeted command and control infrastructure, ballistic missile sites and intelligence facilities.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, left, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine answer questions at a news conference about U.S. military action against Iran at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., on March 2, 2026. (via Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images)

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The opening phase hit more than 1,000 targets in the first 24 hours, Caine said. He added that American B-2 bombers fly 37-hour round-trip missions from the continental United States to hit underground facilities with penetrating munitions.

“We are now approximately 57 hours into the operation,” Caine said Monday, adding that U.S. forces have launched hundreds of missions and delivered tens of thousands of pieces of munitions as the campaign continues to grow.

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