American and Israeli forces are striking targets across Iran every 100 seconds on average, and have been keeping that pace for 10 days straight. And that sort of firepower isn’t cheap. According to the Pentagon, American forces alone expended some $5.6 billion in munitions in just the first 48 hours of fighting.
With the American and Israeli offensive into Iran now stretching into its second week, Iran’s conventional offensive capabilities are continuing to be degraded: Iranian ballistic missile launches are said to be reduced by 90% since the fighting began; drone launches are following closely behind, with an 83% reduction over that same period.
According to this morning’s briefing from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine, U.S. forces alone have struck more than 5,000 targets in and around Iran over the first 10 days of fighting. American strikes are concentrated primarily in the southern portion of the country, whereas Israel’s offensive continues in the north.
For American forces alone, that shakes out to more than 20 strikes per hour, every hour, for 10 straight days and counting. If we include Israel’s most recent figures, which don’t include strikes over the weekend, and we get more than 6,400 targets struck across Iran since the onset of fighting: that’s 840 strikes per day, or a new strike on an average of every 103 seconds.
Strikes have targeted Iranian military, intelligence, and political leadership
Strikes are also aimed against Iran’s ballistic missile and drone launching platforms in order to hamper Iran’s ability to launch missiles and suicide drones against countries in the region. But those are far from the only targets.
In order to effectively hunt for those missile and drone launchers, you’ve got to fly suppression and destruction of enemy air defense operations (SEAD/DEAD) and scour the region for Iranian air defense radar arrays and missile systems that could hinder operations.
Additional targets include military infrastructure, aircraft hangars and runways, and what U.S. Central Command calls “Centers of Gravity” for Iran’s military capabilities. That means things like drone production facilities, ballistic missile research and development centers, and logistics hubs for various weapon programs.
These targets are “upstream of the shooters,” General Clarke said.
The idea behind these strikes is to eliminate the ability of Iran to resupply its forces with missiles and drones, but also to neuter ongoing development of better munitions that might be brought to bear in the future.
However, with that many targets struck at that rate, there’s ample opportunity for error – and reports indicate that a school may well have been among the targets hit by American munitions in the initial hours of this offensive. The U.S. says it’s still conducting an investigation into who was responsible for the errant strike.
Feature Image: An F-35C Lightning II, attached to Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 314, is chained down on the flight deck of Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) in support of Operation Epic Fury, Mar. 3, 2026. (U.S. Central Command Public Affairs photo)
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