U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) Commander Brad Cooper announced on Wednesday that American forces have destroyed the last of Iran’s four Soleimani-class warships, eliminating an entire class of aggressive Iranian naval ships from the battlefield.
“To date, we have struck more than 5,500 targets inside Iran, including more than 60 ships using a variety of precision weapons systems,” Cooper said in a video update posted to X. “We also took out the last of four Soleimani-class warships – that’s an entire class of Iranian ships now out of the fight.”
The Soleimani-class of warships represented one of the strongest cornerstones of the Iranian regime’s navy. First delivered to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy in 2022, the guided-missile carriers were the first Iranian warships equipped with launch systems capable of firing a specific class of surface-to-air missiles, per The Military Times. Their destruction removes a weapons system that Tehran had invested heavily in to help fight against American naval ships in the Persian Gulf.
Cooper’s update included footage released March 10 showing an unidentified Soleimani-class vessel hit by an American strike, as well as previously unreleased footage of the “Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis,” a similar but smaller warship. Additional footage appeared to show a mini-submarine and several missile-armed Iranian crafts also being destroyed.
The admiral described Tuesday as one of the most relentless periods of the Operation Fury campaign, with U.S. forces launching strikes nearly every hour from different locations and directions into Iran, including American bombers destroying a large ballistic missile manufacturing facility. Cooper referred to the wave of strikes as “unpredictable, dynamic and decisive.”
Cooper also said the U.S. has achieved “air superiority” over large portions of Iran, placing heavy daily pressure on the regime through the sky as well. As a result, since Operation Epic Fury began on February 28, Iran’s ballistic missile attacks have decreased by 90%, while drone attacks have dropped by 83%, according to a report from The Navy Times.
Strait Of Hormuz: A Waterway Under Siege
The naval campaign has had a big and sweeping impact on one of the world’s most strategically critical choke points – the Strait of Hormuz. Roughly 20% of global oil and liquefied natural gas passes through the Strait of Hormuz, and the ongoing conflict has rattled the global energy market.
Iran’s remaining naval forces have not gone quietly. On Wednesday, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations announced in a report that three commercial shipping vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz were struck by an unknown projectile. The Thailand-flagged cargo ship Mayuree Naree was also allegedly attacked, leading to an engine room fire, with Iran’s regime claiming responsibility.
In a separate post earlier in the week, CENTCOM announced it had destroyed 16 Iranian minelayer ships operating near the Strait of Hormuz – vessels that had been deployed to seed the waterway with mines capable of violently disrupting traffic in the area. Intelligence assessments report that Iran holds on to a substantial stockpile of mines, and the “fast-attack ships” used to lay them remain difficult to detect and track in the strait’s heavy maritime traffic.
In response to Iran’s continued use of commercial port infrastructure for military purposes, CENTCOM issued a warning for civilians to evacuate Iranian ports along the Strait of Hormuz, saying that civilian ports used to conduct military operations could lose their protected status under international law and soon become legitimate military targets.
President Trump has since reaffirmed his administration’s confidence on Wednesday, vowing that oil tankers transiting the strait would have “great safety” and issuing an ultimatum to Tehran to remove mines from the waterway immediately.
The Bigger Picture: Lives Lost During Operation Epic Fury
Cooper reiterated that the central mission of Operation Epic Fury is to end Iran’s ability to project power and harass international shipping crossing the Strait of Hormuz – a goal that Wednesday’s naval milestone moves closer to achieving.
Since Operation Epic Fury began, roughly 140 American troops have been wounded – eight severely – according to a statement from the Pentagon provided to The Military Times. Six American service members have been killed, including one who died after an Iranian one-way attack drone struck a makeshift operations center in Kuwait on March 1.
