New intelligence assessments are raising fresh questions about the extent of damage inflicted on Iran’s military, suggesting the Islamic Republic retains far more capability than the White House and Pentagon have publicly acknowledged.

Multiple U.S. officials familiar with classified briefings told CBS News that as much as half of Iran’s ballistic missile stockpile remained intact at the start of the April ceasefire, along with a significant portion of its launch infrastructure. Roughly 60 percent of the naval arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — including its fleet of fast-attack boats — also survived the U.S. and Israeli campaign, according to those officials.

The findings stand in contrast to the sweeping claims of success from President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who have repeatedly characterized the operation, dubbed “Operation Epic Fury,” as a decisive blow that effectively neutralized Iran’s military.

“We’ve taken out their navy, we’ve taken out their air force, we’ve taken out their leaders,” Trump said this week, while Hegseth described the campaign as “a historic and overwhelming victory on the battlefield,” adding that it had rendered Iran “combat ineffective for years to come.”

But officials speaking on condition of anonymity painted a more complicated picture. While Iran’s conventional navy appears to have suffered extensive losses, its asymmetric naval forces — particularly those tied to the IRGC — remain capable of disrupting shipping lanes, including in the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz.

That threat was underscored Wednesday, when Iranian gunboats attacked multiple commercial vessels in the waterway shortly after Trump announced he was extending a ceasefire to allow more time for diplomacy.

Iran’s air power has also been degraded but not eliminated, officials said, with roughly two-thirds of its air force still believed to be operational despite thousands of strikes targeting military infrastructure. And while the campaign significantly reduced Iran’s capabilities, intelligence assessments indicate the country retains a large inventory of missiles and unmanned aerial systems.

“Iran retains thousands of missiles and one-way attack UAVs that can threaten U.S. and partner forces throughout the region,” Marine Lt. Gen. James Adams, head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, wrote in prepared testimony to Congress.

Pentagon officials have defended the operation’s success, emphasizing the scale of destruction inflicted. Spokesman Sean Parnell said more than 13,000 Iranian targets were struck in under 40 days, describing the campaign as delivering a “crippling series of blows” to the regime.

Parnell added that 92 percent of Iran’s largest naval vessels had been destroyed, calling it “the largest elimination of a navy over a three week period since World War II.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)