US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said on Friday (March 13th) that Iran’s missile capabilities had been severely degraded following sustained US and Israeli military strikes, claiming that the country’s missile stock had dropped dramatically and weapons production capacity had been largely destroyed.
At a press conference at the Pentagon, Hegseth said: “Iran has no air defense. Iran has no air force. Iran has no navy. Their missiles, their rocket launchers and their drones are being destroyed or shot out of the sky. Their missile volume is down 90 percent. Their one-way attack drones are down 95 percent yesterday.”
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Iran’s Missile Production ‘Functionally Defeated, Destroyed’
The Pentagon chief said the attacks targeted facilities across Iran responsible for the production of ballistic missiles and their components.
“Two days ago, Iran’s entire ballistic missile production capacity — every company that makes every component of these missiles — was functionally defeated, destroyed,” Hegseth said.
“Buildings, complexes and factory lines all over Iran, destroyed. So we shoot down and destroy the missiles they still have in stock, but more importantly we make sure they can’t make any more.”
Ending Iran’s nuclear program as a ‘prime mission’
Hegseth also said that eliminating Iran’s nuclear weapons remains a major goal of the U.S. campaign.
“We said from the beginning: deny Iran nuclear weapons,” he said.
The defense secretary noted that Donald Trump’s administration is focused on preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons again, although he declined to say whether ground forces might be needed to secure supplies of enriched uranium or nuclear devices.
He added that Washington would welcome a decision by the Iranian leadership to voluntarily dismantle the program.
