United States Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has said that today will be “the most intense day of strikes,” as the U.S. and Israeli militaries increase their attacks on Iran. Meanwhile, Hegseth said that, in the last 24 hours, Iran has launched its lowest number of weapons since the conflict began, suggesting that these strikes are starting to more significantly erode Tehran’s ability to hit back at Israel, U.S. interests in the Middle East, and the wider region.
Hegseth said that the aftermath of the conflict is “going to be in America’s interests” and says it “will not live under a nuclear blackmail” from Iran.
The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford is reportedly on the move. Based on open-source flight tracking data, the supercarrier is apparently now operating in the central Red Sea, off the coast of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. This suggests that the carrier strike group is heading closer to the theater of combat. Whether it will pass the Bab El Mandeb Strait, which the Iranian proxies in Yemen can put under threat, is yet to be seen.