CENTCOM Commander Admiral Brad Cooper testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., May 14, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
Newly uncovered U.S. intelligence reports have debunked claims made by a leading Trump administration admiral during sworn testimony about the damage done to Iran, per CNN, with new estimates showing that they are much closer to rebuilding key military capabilities than once thought.
Admiral Brad Cooper, commander for U.S. CENTCOM under President Donald Trump, testified before the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday. At one point, he made a claim about the extent of the destruction that Trump's war had caused for the Iranian military, and asserted that they would need years to rebuild.
"Operation Epic Furysignificantly degraded Iran'sballistic missiles and droneswhile destroying 90 percent of theirdefense industrial base,ensuring that Iran cannot reconstitute for years," Cooper said during the testimony.
This claim was cited during a Thursday segment on CNN's News Central, where host Brianna Keilar discussed newly uncovered intelligence reports that revealed estimates that Iran is actively "rebuilding keyparts of its military," including its "expansive drone program." Sources who spoke with the network said that Iran could have these capabilities in a matter of months, not years.
"We're learning some newdetails about how quickly Iranappears to be rebuilding keyparts of its military, and thatincludes its expansive droneprogram, which, according to asource, could be fully rebuiltin as little as six months," Keilar said. "Multiple sources telling CNN,U.S. intel indicates during thisnow six-week ceasefire, Iran isreconstituting its militarycapabilities a lot faster thanexpected, one official sayingthe Iranians have, quote,exceeded all timelines."
Senior national security reporter Zachary Cohen joined the broadcast to dig in deeper on this report, and how it conflicts with Cooper's claim.
"We're told that Iran isactively rebuilding productionfacilities and militarycapabilities that were destroyedby U.S.-Israeli airstrikes, andthey're doing so much morequickly than the U.S.intelligence community initiallythought they could," Cohen explained. "And that'ssomething that we're hearingconcerns about from U.S.officials, who are sayingthat Iran is reconstituting anddoing so on a very rapidtimeline. And that includesthings like trying to replacemissile sites, launchers andtheir industrial base writlarge, which the U.S. and Israeldid inflict serious damage on."
He continued: "So not only does Iran stillmaintain significant ballisticmissile and drone capability,but we're told that they arealready producing more drones toreplace the ones that they'velost during the conflict. OneU.S. official [told] me thatthey could completelyreconstitute their drone attackcapability in a matter of sixmonths. So a much moreaccelerated timeline than theone Cooper was laying out..."