Middle East Commander Says Iran’s Drones Are Depleted, US Navy Could Open Strait of Hormuz

Adm. Brad Cooper told senators that Tehran has 10 percent drone and missile capacity, disputing other assessments.

U.S. forces patrol the Arabian Sea near the M/V Touska by the Strait of Hormuz on April 20, 2026. Currently, more than 160 million barrels of Iranian crude oil are at sea, and at least 140 million barrels are outside the blockade zone, a market analyst at Vortexa said. U.S. Navy via Getty Images

It took the U.S. military less than 40 days to destroy 90 percent of Iran’s operational ballistic missile and drone capacities, annihilate its navy, dismantle its support for proxy militias, and derail its emergent nuclear weapons program, the commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East said on May 14.

“Across every element of national power, they have been significantly degraded,” Adm. Brad Cooper said in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee. “We have dismantled what took them decades and billions to build.”