Iran’s defense industrial base is ‘functionally defeated’: Hegseth

Fourteen days into the war on Iran, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declared the country’s ability to develop and manufacture new weapons “functionally defeated,” noting as well its shrinking missile force, navy “at the bottom of the Persian Gulf,” and disabled air force.

Missile attacks are down 90 percent and one-way attack drone strikes are down 95 percent since the first day of Iranian retaliation, Hegseth added in the latest update to the Pentagon metric.  

“So we're shooting down and destroying what missiles they still have in stock, but more importantly, ensuring that they have no ability to make more—their production lines, their military plants, their defense innovation centers, defeated,” he said at a Pentagon press briefing.

The U.S. is continuing to strike factories and munitions warehouses, Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at the briefing. 

After comparing Iran’s remaining leaders to rats and questioning why its new leader issued his first statement in writing rather than on camera, Hegseth turned his ire upon the defense press.

“Some of this crew in the press just can't stop. Allow me to make a few suggestions,” he said. “People look up at the TV and they see banners. They see headlines. I used to be in that business, and I know that everything is written intentionally.” 

Hegseth worked for a decade for Fox, which in 2023 paid $787 million after it was sued for promoting lies.

At the press briefing, he criticized CNN for reporting that the administration underestimated how badly the war would affect shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. 

“For decades, Iran has threatened shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. This is always what they do: hold the strait hostage. CNN doesn't think we thought of that. It's a fundamentally unserious report,” Hegseth before making reference to CNN’s upcoming merger with Paramount, a media company seen as favorable toward the Trump administration. “The sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better.”

Asked why the U.S. Navy isn’t escorting commercial ships through the strait, Hegseth said, “We want to do it, eventually, in a way that makes the most sense for what we want to achieve, and ensure that we're sending the right signal to the world when we do so.”

He later said there’s no evidence that Iran is still placing mines in the strait.

The secretary then acknowledged the deaths of four aircrew aboard the KC-135 tanker that crashed in Iraq on Thursday. 

“Bad things can happen,” he said.

Caine began his remarks with a tribute to the airmen, confirming four had been recovered and there is an active rescue mission to locate the other two members of the tanker’s crew.

“Please keep these brave airmen, their families, friends and units in your thoughts,” Caine said. “In the coming hours and days, our service members make an incredible sacrifice to go forward and do the things that the nation asks of them."