US military intensifies campaign to reopen Strait of Hormuz

U.S. warplanes and attack helicopters are ramping up assaults against Iranian naval forces in an intensified military campaign to clear the Strait of Hormuz.

The plan is confirmed by Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who stated that low-lying flying Air Force A-10 Warthog aircraft are “hunting and killing fast-attack watercraft” operated by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in the contested sea lanes.

The decades-old attack plane, originally designed for close air support, has been repurposed to strike ships at sea.

During the Pentagon press conference, Caine said: “The U.S military dropped 5,000-pound penetrator weapons into underground storage facilities storing coastal defence cruise missiles.”

U.S. officials confirmed that about 120 Iranian naval vessels and 44 mine-laying watercraft have already been destroyed as a result of Operation Epic Fury.

Additionally, regional allies of the U.S., whose officials declined to identify, are contributing Apache helicopter gunships to counter Iranian one-way attack drones.

Meanwhile, some 2,200 Marines are also sent to the Persian Gulf after cutting short an Indo-Pacific patrol, positioned to help clear the strait or potentially seize Iran’s Kharg Island oil hub.