{"id":204143,"date":"2026-03-04T17:21:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T17:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/204143\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T17:21:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T17:21:11","slug":"hegseth-says-us-cant-stop-everything-that-iran-fires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/204143\/","title":{"rendered":"Hegseth says US ‘can’t stop everything’ that Iran fires"},"content":{"rendered":"

By KONSTANTIN TOROPIN and DAVID KLEPPER<\/p>\n

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth acknowledged Wednesday that some\u00a0Iranian air attacks<\/a>\u00a0may still hit their targets even as he asserted that U.S. military superiority is quickly giving it control of the Islamic Republic\u2019s airspace.<\/p>\n

The U.S. has spared \u201cno expense or capability\u201d to enhance air defense systems to protect American forces and allies in the Middle East, Hegseth told reporters at the Pentagon days after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in\u00a0a war that has widened<\/a>\u00a0throughout the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis does not mean we can stop everything, but we ensured that the maximum possible defense and maximum possible force protection was set up before we went on offense,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The acknowledgement that additional drone or missile strikes in the region could cause damage and harm to troops comes as President Donald Trump and top defense leaders have warned that additional\u00a0American casualties<\/a>\u00a0were expected in a conflict that began Saturday and could last months.<\/p>\n

U.S. service members \u201cremain in harm\u2019s way, and we must be clear-eyed that the risk is still high,\u201d Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at the same press conference.<\/p>\n

Six soldiers were killed when an Iranian drone strike\u00a0hit an operations center<\/a>\u00a0Sunday in the heart of a civilian port in Kuwait, miles away from the main Army base. The husband of one of the slain soldiers, who was part of\u00a0a supply and logistics unit based in Iowa<\/a>, says the center was a shipping container-style building and had no defenses.<\/p>\n

Caine declined to answer a reporter\u2019s question about the possibility of deploying ground troops in Iran, something that Trump\u00a0has not ruled out<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to comment on U.S. boots on the ground,\u201d Caine said. \u201cI think that\u2019s a question for policymakers. And I don\u2019t make policy, I execute policy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hegseth also signaled a possible longer time frame for the conflict than has previously been floated by the Trump administration, saying it could last eight weeks but that the U.S. has the munitions and the equipment to beat Iran in a war of attrition. He declined to set a specific time range, saying the specific duration of the war would depend on how it unfolds.<\/p>\n

\"Defense<\/p>\n

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine take questions during a press briefing at the Pentagon, Monday, March 2, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Mark Schiefelbein)\n<\/p>\n

\"taff<\/p>\n

Staff members watch as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, reflected in a window, speaks during a press briefing at the Pentagon, Monday, March 2, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Mark Schiefelbein)\n<\/p>\n

\"Chairman<\/p>\n

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, speaks during a news briefing at the Pentagon, Wednesday, March 4, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Konstantin Toropin)\n<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A Deptartment of Defense map titled, Operation EPIC FURY Timeline \u2013 First 100 Hours, is displayed during a news conference with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, at the Pentagon, Wednesday, March 4, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Konstantin Toropin)\n<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 4<\/p>\n

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine take questions during a press briefing at the Pentagon, Monday, March 2, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Mark Schiefelbein)\n<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cYou can say four weeks, but it could be six, it could be eight, it could be three,\u201d he said. \u201cUltimately, we set the pace and the tempo. The enemy is off balance, and we\u2019re going to keep them off balance.\u201d<\/p>\n

More forces continue to arrive in the region, including jet fighters and bombers, Hegseth said, and the U.S. \u201cwill take all the time we need to make sure that we succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Supplies of weaponry aren\u2019t an issue, Hegseth and Caine said, with Hegseth noting that the military used more advanced weapons at the start of the campaign but was switching to gravity bombs now that the U.S. gains control of Iranian skies. Stockpiles of the advanced weapons remain \u201cextremely strong,\u201d the defense secretary said.<\/p>\n

Caine added that the U.S. attacks on Iranian missile sites and other offensive targets have been successful enough to allow U.S. forces to strike deeper inland, allowing for the shift from sophisticated weapons that can be launched from far away to more traditional, precision bombs dropped by aircraft.<\/p>\n

Caine said the U.S. has \u201csufficient precision munitions for the task at hand, both on the offense and defense,\u201d but noted that the military would not be releasing quantities, citing operational security.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo our air defenses and that of our allies have plenty of runway,\u201d Hegseth said. \u201cWe can sustain this fight easily for as long as we need to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u00a0said this week<\/a>\u00a0the campaign is likely to last four to five weeks but he was prepared \u201cto go far longer than that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tehran has vowed to completely destroy the Middle East\u2019s military and economic infrastructure \u2014 signaling the war was nowhere near over and could expand further. But Iran\u2019s use of missiles and drones is putting a dent in its arsenal.<\/p>\n

The number of ballistic missiles fired by Iran is down 86% from the first day of the U.S. military\u2019s campaign, with a 23% drop in the last 24 hours, Caine said, and Iran\u2019s use of one-way attack drone shots is down 73% from the opening days. The decrease could indicate that Iran is holding some weapons in reserve to prolong the conflict.<\/p>\n

Associated Press writers Ben Finley and Meg Kinnard contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By KONSTANTIN TOROPIN and DAVID KLEPPER WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth acknowledged Wednesday that some\u00a0Iranian air…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[94555,7716,74,76,75,94444],"class_list":["post-204143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-air-attacks","tag-pete-hegseth","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-us-iran-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}