Defense US military sets Iranian drone carrier ship on fire by Filip Timotija - 03/05/26 7:13 PM ET by Filip Timotija - 03/05/26 7:13 PM ET Share ✕ LinkedIn LinkedIn Email Email NOW PLAYING The U.S. military struck and set on fire an Iranian drone carrier ship Thursday as forces continue to degrade the Islamic Republic’s navy and continue pummeling the nation with missiles and bombs. Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Central Command (Centcom), said during a Thursday press conference that the vessel was roughly the size of a World War II “aircraft carrier” and “as we speak, it’s on fire.”  On Saturday, when the war began, Centcom said its forces hit Iran’s drone carrier IRIS Shahid Bagheri as part of a barrage of airstrikes.  The U.S. military strikes against the Iranian navy have intensified, as now more than 30 of its warships have been sunk or destroyed, according to Cooper, who added that U.S. military bombers have hit nearly 200 targets “deep inside” Iran, including the capital Tehran, in the last hour.  Iran’s attacks have slowed down, with ballistic missile attacks decreasing by 90 percent, while drone strikes have gone down by 83 percent since the conflict broke out, Cooper said.  “Having said this, we remain vigilant,” he told reporters.  Stealth B-2 bombers dropped “dozens” of 2,000-pound penetrator bombs onto Iran’s “deeply buried” ballistic missile launchers, and U.S. forces also struck Tehran’s equivalent of Space Command, “which degrades their ability to threaten Americans,” Cooper said.  Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, standing alongside Cooper at the Centcom headquarters in Tampa, Fla., said the amount of U.S. firepower over Iran is about to “surge dramatically” with the ability of the U.S. military to do more basing not just at British bases, but with other regional allies.  “We’ve had other friends step up, and we’re grateful for that,” the Pentagon chief said.  The updates from Hegseth and Cooper come as the war has widened, with the U.S. and Israel continuing to hit targets inside Iran, while Iran has continued to retaliate by targeting U.S. interests in the region and Israel with swarms of drones and ballistic missiles.  As a result, Gulf states, including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and others, have been detecting and shooting down incoming Iranian drones, although some have pierced through, causing damage.  Cooper said Thursday that President Trump gave the U.S. military another task: to raise or level Iran’s ballistic missile industrial base.  “So we’re not just hitting what they have, we’re destroying their ability to rebuild,” Cooper said, later adding that “this is going to take some time, but our forces are well supplied.”  Add as preferred source on Google Tags Pete Hegseth Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Share ✕ LinkedIn LinkedIn Email Email More Defense News See All Technology Anthropic CEO vows to fight risk designation, insists ‘vast majority’ of customers won’t be affected by Julia Shapero 1 hour ago Technology  /  1 hour ago