The US announced that it had destroyed 11 Iranian submarines

At a press conference at the Pentagon today, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that the campaign against Iran is still proceeding as planned, but President Donald Trump’s administration will not set a specific date for the end of the conflict. “The US President will decide when everything stops,” he said.

According to Mr. Hegseth, since the conflict broke out on February 28, US forces have carried out attacks on 7,000 targets within Iranian territory, hitting more than 40 minelaying boats and destroying 11 of the country’s submarines.

“Our targeting capabilities are still as accurate as the first day and going according to plan,” he said, emphasizing that the purpose of the campaign is to destroy Iran’s missile launchers, defense industrial and naval facilities, and prevent Tehran from possessing nuclear weapons.

Answering a question about the possibility of Iran continuing to launch missile attacks on US allies in the Middle East, Minister Hegseth admitted that Tehran “entered the war with a lot of weapons”.

“This is why we continue to act as decisively and strongly as possible, to counter their ballistic missile capabilities,” the US Secretary of Defense said, but emphasized that Iran still has “certain capabilities”.

He did not deny the information that the Pentagon had asked the White House to approve a budget of more than $200 billion to present to Congress to fund the campaign to attack Iran. “I think that number may change. It takes money to get rid of bad people,” Minister Hegseth said.

During the same press conference, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine said the country’s military “remains on track” to achieve its goals and is moving deeper and deeper into Iranian territory.

Iranian officials have not commented on the information.

Before the conflict broke out, the Iranian navy owned at least 20 submarines, including 3 Project 877EKM “Paltus” ships produced by the Soviet Union and Russia, of which two were decommissioned, along with a Fateh-class medium-sized submarine and 16 small Ghadir-class submarines developed by Tehran.

Images released by the US military on March 3 showed the IRIS Fateh submarine being destroyed while moored at the port.

The Middle East conflict has lasted for nearly three weeks and until now there has been no sign of cooling down. The US and Israel both claim “victory”, but will continue military operations until their goals are achieved. Meanwhile, Iran continues to attack with missiles and drones on targets in a series of Middle Eastern countries.