By LOLITA C. BALDOR and TARA COPP
Washington (AP) Top Pentagon officials reiterated Thursday how devastating U.S. attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities had been and went into great detail about the planning and research that went into the bombing campaign.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, attempted to change the focus of the debate from whether the nuclear targets were destroyed, as President Donald Trump has claimed, to the bravery of the strikes and the thorough planning and research that went into their execution during a rare Pentagon news briefing.
Decide for yourself if you want to describe it as destroyed, defeated, or demolished. In an often contentious interview with the media, Hegseth stated that this attack was historically successful.
He reiterated that an initial evaluation by the Defense Intelligence Agency, a division of the Defense Department, was preliminary and that the study recognized information gaps and low confidence. Reporters who were breathlessly concentrating on the intelligence assessment were reprimanded by Hegseth, who said that such reports were only an effort to discredit the Republican president.
According to that intelligence estimate, Tehran’s program was only delayed by a few months, and although the U.S. raids on three Iranian nuclear facilities caused considerable damage, the sites were not completely destroyed.
According to a U.S. official who spoke to The Associated Press, American stealth bombers fired two deep penetrator bombs on Natanz and twelve on Iran’s Fordo nuclear enrichment facility. The official discussed military actions while speaking on condition of anonymity.
According to the DIA analysis, the sites were not completely destroyed despite the massive amount of firepower employed on Fordo.
During the briefing, Caine explained how two officers from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency had spent 15 years researching the development of a weapon that might breach Iran’s Fordo nuclear plant, which is being constructed underground.
Over time, he claimed, the department employed a large number of Ph.D. holders to work on the program, performing modeling and simulations that covertly and covertly made us the largest users of supercomputer hours in the United States.
According to Caine, the pilots of the planes that took part in the weekend strikes reported that the flash that followed the bomb drop was the brightest explosion they had ever witnessed.
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In response to some queries during the briefing, Hegseth attacked the reporter or the press in general.
Hegseth admitted that the Pentagon was examining all facets of intelligence and making sure we had a grasp of what was where when he was asked repeatedly if any of the nuclear material had been transported out of the Iranian facilities.
Hegseth stated, “I don’t know of any intelligence that claims that things were moved or weren’t where they were supposed to be.”
This report was written by Chris Megerian and Eric Tucker of the Associated Press.
