WASHINGTON, March 10. /TASS/. The US administration believes that Iran's armed forces remain combat-ready, but general trends are not in their favor, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said at a press conference that included Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Kane.
"If the enemy can simply wait and then project power, that's problematic. And we've seen some spurts here and there. But ultimately, the trend lines, if you look at the charts that we look at every day, have gone <…> down to a flat," the top US defense official said, commenting on Iran's actions. "That doesn't mean they won't be able to project [force]. [It] doesn't [mean] our air defenders still don't have to defend – they do," he acknowledged. "But that is strong evidence of [the] degradation [of Iran's military capabilities]," Hegseth pointed out. According to the information he presented, this is also indicated by an assessment of the results of the US military's actions during the current operation against Iran based on satellite images and the like.
In turn, Kane opined that the US Army is adapting to the changing situation faster than the Iranian armed forces. "We are watching what they're doing, and we are adapting faster than they are," the commander said. "They're fighting, and I respect that, but I don't think they're more formidable than we thought," the defense official pointed out.
Hegseth also assured that the conflict is not escalating. "I see media banners that say, you know, 'War expanding' or 'War spread.' It's actually the opposite. It's actually quite contained," the top US defense official pointed out.
The United States and Israel launched a military operation against Iran on February 28. Major Iranian cities, including Tehran, were struck. The White House justified the attack by citing alleged missile and nuclear threats from Iran. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced a retaliatory operation, targeting sites in Israel. US military bases in Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE were also hit. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and some other key Iranian leaders were killed in the joint US-Israeli attack.