General Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on Sunday detailed the execution of Operation Epic Fury, describing a tightly coordinated, multi-domain assault on Iran that began with direct authorisation from United States President Donald Trump.
According to Caine, at 3.38 pm on Friday, February 27, United States Central Command — through the Secretary of War — received the final go order from the President. Trump directed, and Caine quoted: “Operation Epic Fury is approved. No aborts. Good luck”.
“In the region, every element of the joint force moved into final preparation. Air defence batteries readied their systems to counter potential Iranian retaliation. Pilots and crews rehearsed strike packages, aircrews began loading weapons, and two aircraft carrier strike groups advanced toward their launch positions,” he said.
Simultaneously, Caine said, US operations centres were activated across Florida, the Pentagon, and the Central Command area of responsibility.
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said the mission was highly classified so that, at the moment of attack, the enemy would experience only “speed, surprise and violence of action”. “The opening moves came from the United States Cyber Command and United States Space Command, which layered non-kinetic effects to disrupt, downgrade and blind Iran’s ability to see, communicate and respond,” Caine explained.
At H-hour — 9.45 am local Tehran time — more than 100 aircraft were launched from land and sea.
“The formation included fighters, tankers, airborne electronic attack platforms, bombers from the United States and unmanned systems, all operating in a single synchronised wave,” he said.
Furthermore, Caine described the mission as a daylight strike triggered by an event involving the Israel Defense Forces, enabled by US intelligence.
“The first sea-based strikes came from Tomahawk missiles launched by the US Navy, which closed in on Iranian naval forces and began hitting targets across Iran’s southern flank. On the ground, US forces fired precision stand-off weapons that Caine described as measured, deliberate, precise and lethal,” he said.
The assault, Caine said, struck more than 1,000 targets in the first 24 hours.
“We are now roughly 57 hours into the operation,” Caine said, adding that the initial phase focused on systematically targeting Iranian command-and-control infrastructure, naval forces, ballistic missile sites and intelligence networks.
Coordinated space and cyber operations, he said, effectively disrupted communications and central networks across the area of responsibility, leaving the adversary “unable to see, coordinate or respond”.
The combined impact of the strikes has established local air superiority, which Caine said would both protect US forces and enable continued operations over Iran.
