U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday said that the U.S. is quickly gaining air superiority over Iran but that America cannot stop all air attacks.

He signaled a longer timeframe for the U.S. war in Iran, saying it will depend on military progress but the campaign could last four, six or eight weeks or less. 

Here’s are key highlights — in his own words — from Wednesday’s news conference.

‘Winning decisively’

I stand before you today with one unmistakable message about Operation Epic Fury: America is winning decisively, devastatingly and without mercy. Under the direct command of President Trump, the War Department unleashed this operation early Saturday morning, just four days ago, which means we need to remember two things.

First, we are only four days into this. Metrics are shifting, dust is settling, and more forces are arriving. It’s very early. And as President Trump has said, we will take all the time we need to make sure that we succeed.

Second, we are only four days into this, and the results have been incredible, historic really. Only the United States of America could lead this — only us. But when you add the Israeli Defense Forces, a devastatingly capable force, the combination is sheer destruction for our radical Islamist Iranian adversaries. They are toast and they know it, or at least soon enough they will know it. And we have only just begun to hunt, dismantle, demoralize, destroy and defeat their capabilities just four days in.

‘Complete control of Iranian skies’

Starting last night and to be completed in a few days, in under a week, the two most powerful Air Forces in the world will have complete control of Iranian skies, uncontested airspace.

I hope all the folks watching understand what uncontested airspace and complete control means. It means we will fly all day, all night, day and night finding, fixing and finishing the missiles and defense industrial base of the Iranian military, finding and fixing their leaders and their military leaders, flying over Tehran, flying over Iran, flying over their capital, flying over the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps), Iranian leaders looking up and seeing only US and Israeli air power every minute of every day until we decide it’s over.

And Iran will be able to do nothing about it. B-2s, B-52s, B-1s, Predator drones. Fighters controlling the skies. Picking targets. Death and destruction from the sky all day long. We’re playing for keeps. Our warfighters have maximum authorities granted personally by the president and yours truly.

‘We are just getting started’

The campaign has seven times the intensity of Israel’s previous operations against Iran during the 12-day war, seven times. And as President Trump said, more and larger waves are coming. We are just getting started. We are accelerating, not decelerating. Iran’s capabilities are evaporating by the hour. While American strength grows, fiercer smarter and utterly dominant.

More bombers and more fighters are arriving just today. And now with complete control of the skies, we will be using 500-pound, 1,000-pound and 2,000-pound GPS and laser-guided precision gravity bombs of which we have a nearly unlimited stockpile. We used more exquisite standoff munitions at the start but no longer need to. Our stockpiles of those, as well as Patriots, remains extremely strong.

‘Iran’s senior leaders are dead’

Iran’s senior leaders are dead. The so-called governing council that might have selected a successor — dead, missing or cowering in bunkers, too terrified to even occupy the same room. Senior generals, mid-level officers, enlisted ranks — they can’t talk or communicate, let alone mount a coordinated and sustained offensive. That’s not great for morale.

The Iranian Air Force is no more, built for 1996, destroyed in 2026. The Iranian navy rests at the bottom of the Persian Gulf, combat ineffective, decimated, destroyed, defeated, pick your adjective. In fact, last night we sunk their prized ship, the Soleimani. Looks like POTUS got him twice.

Their navy, not a factor. Pick your adjective, it is no more. In fact, yesterday in the Indian Ocean, and we’ll play it on the screen there, an American submarine sunk an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters. Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo — quiet death. The first sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo since World War II.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.