Hegseth: 'No one's under there able to assess' efficacy of US strike on Iranian facility

SD, CJCS Conduct Pentagon Press Briefing

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine conduct a press briefing at the Pentagon, Washington, D.C., June 26, 2025. (DoD photo by Kashif Basharat)

WASHINGTON — In a fiery press conference this morning Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth aggressively pushed back on a leaked intelligence report that downplayed the efficacy of the Iran strikes, but acknowledged “no one” has first-hand knowledge of how hard one of the sites was hit.

“We all recognize there will be days and weeks ahead — that’s why yesterday I said if you want to know what’s going on at Fordo, you better go there and get a big shovel, because no one’s under there right now, no one’s under there able to assess, and everyone’s using reflections of what they see,” he said, before listing more positive public assessments of damage done on the site by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations and the Israeli government, as well as citing comments from senior Iranian officials.

The intelligence report, a preliminary, “low confidence” assessment first reported by CNN, was produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency and said the strikes did not destroy what the network called core components of the Iranian nuclear program. It said the attack likely only set back the program by months. The early analysis contradicted much more far-reaching descriptions from President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly said Iran’s nuclear program was “obliterated.”

During the press conference, Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Dan Caine went into detail about the Fordo site’s layout as well as the 30,000 lb. bunker buster bombs used to strike it.

Caine said planning for such a strike goes back 15 years to the Defense Threat Reducation Agency and its work on bunker-busting munitions after a DTRA officer was “brought into a vault at an undisclosed location and briefed on something going on in Iran” regarding the construction of the underground, heavily fortified facility. The Pentagon office has worked since to be in a position to successfully strike such a target ever since, Caine said.

At one point in the briefing, reporters were shown a video of the 30,000 lb. GBU-57 bombs striking a target in a demonstration.

“You just watched a video of what this weapon is capable of. That’s where we find our confidence, in the skill of the men and women and the capability of the systems they employed, and the recognitions so far and the reflections that it was a highly successful mission,” Hegseth said.

For his part, Caine said each bomb found its precise target during the strikes, but when asked about a damage assessment, he defered to the US Intelligence Community.

In a statement Wednesday, CIA Director John Ratcliffe said his agency “can confirm that a body of credible intelligence indicates Iran’s Nuclear Program has been severely damaged by the recent, targeted strikes. This includes new intelligence from a historically reliable and accurate source/method that several key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed and would have to be rebuilt over the course of years.”

Hegseth’s comments today echoed an IAEA assessment shared on Monday. At the time, the nuclear regulatory body said that “no one — including the IAEA — is in a position to have fully assessed the underground damage” at Fordo.

“Given the explosive payload utilized, and the extreme vibration-sensitive nature of centrifuges, very significant damage is expected to have occurred,” the organization said.

Later in today’s press conference, Hegseth deflected when asked about reporting that Iran may have moved some highly enriched uranium from the sites before they were bombed. (Vice President JD Vance previously said the US would have “conversations” with the Iranians about its remaining nuclear stockpile.)

“Of course we’re watching every single aspect,” Hegseth said, before criticizing the reporter who asked the question. “We’re looking at all aspects of intelligence and making sure we have a sense of what was where,” he added after the personal broadside.

UPDATED 6/26/2025 at 1:55pm ET to include more details on the strike on Fordo from Gen. Caine.