00:00Today we face an increased threat from drones that are highly sophisticated.
00:04They're jet-powered, they have high-end sensors, they have electronic warfare, they have signals
00:10intelligence.
00:11So those days of using high-value defenses to shoot down cheap targets are behind us.
00:17Quite the contrary, what we have been doing lately is using our own low-cost one-way attack
00:23drones attacking Iran, making them use higher-end, more expensive weapons.
00:29I'd like to use the opportunity to myth-bust on drones.
00:33The days of $35,000 drones that we saw in the last couple of years, particularly in the
00:38fight against the Houthis in Yemen, those days are behind us.
00:41Today we face an increased threat from drones that are highly sophisticated.
00:46They're jet-powered, they have high-end sensors, they have electronic warfare, they have signals
00:52intelligence.
00:53So those days of using high-value defenses to shoot down cheap targets are behind us.
00:58Quite the contrary, what we have been doing lately is using our own low-cost one-way
01:04attack drones attacking Iran, making them use higher-end, more expensive weapons.
01:10So I can confidently tell you we have flipped the cost curve in many ways, always work to
01:15be done.
01:15But I like where we are in this regard.
01:17Their capabilities have been significantly degraded.
01:20If I just use my own professional experience in 100 transits through the Strait of Hormuz,
01:25you would typically see 20 to 40 fast boats, and lately we've seen two or three.
01:31US Central Command was created in direct response to the threats posed by the Islamic Republic of
01:36Iran.
01:37And I am the 16th CENTCOM commander to deal with the Iranian problem set.
01:42For 47 years, the Iranian regime has terrorized the region and made hostility to the United
01:47States a core tenet of its rule.
01:50Their hostile, lethal track record against the United States is well documented, but I
02:09have been attacked by the U.S. Army.
02:10And in the United States, they have been attacked by the U.S. Army.
02:10The U.S. Army was attacked by the U.S. Army.
02:11The U.S. Army was attacked by the U.S. Army.
02:12The U.S. Army was attacked by the U.S. Army, and killed four U.S. service members and
02:15wounding nearly 200 more.
02:17After more than two years of Iranian attempts to leverage October 7, 2023 to tear the region apart,
02:24at the direction of the President, United States Central Command initiated Operation Epic Fury.
02:28In less than 40 days, CENTCOM forces achieved our military objectives.
02:32Most notably, we degraded Iran's ability to project power outside its borders and threaten
02:38the region and threaten our interests.
02:41As an example, we can all remember April and October of 2024, hundreds of Iranian ballistic
02:47missiles and drones raining down in the Middle East.
02:50Today, Iran can no longer attack with that mass and scale.
02:54And further, with 90 percent of its defense industrial base destroyed, Iran won't be able to
03:00reconstitute those weapons for years.
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