The U.S. military employed 5,000-pound penetrator weapons against underground Iranian storage facilities holding coastal defense cruise missiles and related support equipment during the latest phase of Operation Epic Fury, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine confirmed Thursday.
“As reported by U.S. CENTCOM yesterday, the US military dropped 5,000 pound penetrator weapons into underground storage facilities storing coastal defense cruise missiles and other support equipment,” Caine said at a Pentagon briefing with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. “These weapons are bespokely designed to get through concrete and/or rocks and function after penetrating those barriers.”
Coastal defense cruise missiles, which Iran has deployed along its coastline to target naval and commercial vessels transiting the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz, have been a recurring focus of U.S. strikes since Operation Epic Fury began on Feb. 28.
The munitions are consistent with the GBU-72 Advanced 5K Penetrator, a bunker-buster, which U.S. officials confirmed made its combat debut in similar strikes on hardened coastal missile sites near the strait on Tuesday, The War Zone first reported.
The GBU-72 is a precision-guided, deep-burial defeat weapon designed for hardened and deeply buried targets. It uses GPS guidance and a high-explosive warhead optimized for post-penetration detonation. Developed to replace the GBU-28, which has been in service since 1991, the Air Force expects the GBU-72 to offer substantially higher lethality against deeply buried and fortified targets.
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Caine said U.S. forces are expanding operations eastward, penetrating deeper into Iranian airspace to hunt one-way attack drone units and eliminate remaining maritime threats. He said forces have also continued to hunt and destroy mine storage facilities and naval ammunition depots across the region.
“To date, we’ve struck over 7,000 targets across Iran and its military infrastructure,” Hegseth said, adding that Thursday’s operations would feature “the largest strike package yet, just like yesterday was.”
Caine also said U.S. forces have continued to expand maritime operations since the campaign began.
“We continue to hunt and kill afloat assets, including more than 120 vessels and 44 mine layers,” he said.
The Strait of Hormuz — through which roughly 20% of the world’s oil supply transits, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration — has been a central focus of Epic Fury operations.
Pentagon officials did not provide battle damage assessments or further details on munitions expenditure at Thursday’s briefing.