War in numbers: US hit tens of thousands of targets in Iran, but capabilities remain

WASHINGTON — Since the ceasefire between Iran and the United States was announced, leaders in US President Donald Trump’s administration have been quick to say Iranian military and arms capacity have been all but wiped out during weeks of fighting.

But there is also an acknowledgment that Tehran retains some capabilities, whether to strike back or defend itself.

Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, this week said the US military has hit more than 13,000 targets. He listed high percentages for attacks or destruction to Iran’s air defenses, navy and weapons factories.

However, the totals stop short of Iran’s military capabilities being “decimated” as the Republican president has asserted.

Independent data from Armed Conflict Location & Event Data, a US-based group that tracks conflicts around the world, shows Iranian strikes persisted at a relatively steady and uninterrupted pace since the war began February 28 through Wednesday.

Here’s a look at what the US says has been targeted, degraded, or remains from Iran, by the numbers:

About 80% of Iran’s air defense systems ‘destroyed’

Caine told reporters Wednesday at the Pentagon that the US has struck more than 1,500 air defense targets, more than 450 ballistic missile storage facilities and 800 one-way attack drone storage facilities. He said, “All of these systems are gone.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth similarly claimed that “Iran no longer has an air defense” and that “we own their skies” before conceding soon afterward that Iran “can still shoot — we know that.”

Hegseth later elaborated, saying that while the Iranians may “have a system here or there,” they no longer had an air defense “system that’s capable of defending their skies.”

Neither Caine nor Hegseth said what the remaining 20 percent of Iran’s air defenses looked like or which parts of the country have the ability to carry out the sporadic fire they described.

Caine offered no new details about what kind of weapon the Iranians used to shoot down a US F-15E Strike Eagle last week. It was the first time an American military jet was shot down during the war, showing Tehran’s continued ability to hit back despite assertions from the Trump administration.

Trump described it on Monday as a “handheld shoulder missile, heat-seeking missile.”

More than 90% of Iran’s regular Navy fleet ‘sunk’

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Wednesday that the Iranian navy was “completely annihilated.”

While 150 Iranian ships “are at the bottom of the ocean,” Caine said, only half the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard’s small attack boats — ships the government used to swarm and harass warships and merchants in the Strait of Hormuz — have been sunk.

Caine also said that after more than 700 strikes, the military believed it has destroyed more than 95% of Iran’s naval mines.

Since the US has not said how large Iran’s stockpile was before the war, it’s unknown how many naval mines make up the remaining 5%. Semiofficial news agencies in Iran published a chart Thursday suggesting the Revolutionary Guard put sea mines into the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial trade route for oil, during the war.

The message is likely designed to be a pressure tactic as Iran, Israel and the United States head into negotiations this weekend in Pakistan. Independent analysts say they have seen no change in merchant traffic through the strait since the tenuous ceasefire began this week.

About 90% of Iran’s weapons factories attacked

Caine said Wednesday that the military “destroyed Iran’s defense industrial base” while pointing to the fact that the US and allies attacked “approximately 90% of their weapons factories.”

He also said, “nearly 80% of Iran’s nuclear industrial base was hit, further degrading their attempts to attain a nuclear weapon.”

While he noted that Iran was no longer able to produce certain components like solid rocket motors, he stopped short of saying that Iran could not eventually rebuild or get weapons in other ways or that the factories attacked had actually been destroyed or rendered unusable.

Trump acknowledged this possibility when he warned countries against arming Iran.

“A Country supplying Military Weapons to Iran will be immediately tariffed, on any and all goods sold to the United States of America, 50%, effective immediately,” Trump said in a social media post on Wednesday.

Iran struck back

While Iran took a pounding in the US and Israeli strikes, it was able to maintain a consistent rate of ballistic missile and drone fire at Israel, US bases and the Gulf states.

Several hundred US service members were wounded during the fighting, with 13 killed in action.

Additionally, Iran shot several US aircraft down, including an F-15 fighter jet, and damaged several more with missile and drone strikes on airbases throughout the region.

Meanwhile, Israel’s military says it dropped over 18,000 bombs in Iran amid the war, in over 1,000 waves of strikes.

According to the IDF, over 10,800 separate strikes were carried out on over 4,000 targets, including air defense systems, ballistic missile launchers, weapon production sites, nuclear facilities, various headquarters and military commanders and leaders.

IAF fighter jets conducted some 8,500 sorties to Iran, the military said.

According to the military, Israel destroyed or disabled around 60% of Iran’s estimated 470 ballistic missile launchers. Around 200 of the launchers were destroyed in strikes, while another 80 were not considered to be operational after the IAF struck tunnel entrances to subterranean facilities where they are stored, according to the military.

However, Iran was able to launch some 650 ballistic missiles at Israel during the conflict. According to the military, more than half of the missiles carried cluster bomb warheads, which spread bomblets indiscriminately over wide areas.

The missile attacks killed 20 Israeli civilians and foreign nationals in Israel, along with four Palestinians in the West Bank. More than 7,000 people in Israel were injured, according to the Health Ministry.