Securing The Strait Of Hormuz And Degrading Iran's Military Power

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I'm Mark Tisen.

I'm Kat Tenth.

I'm Will Cain, and this is The Fox News rundown.

Wednesday, March 25th, 2026.

I'm John Sossier.

The US-Israeli war on Iran continues, and it seems to be intensifying.

As more American military assets are moved into the region, these include ships

weapons and now even US Marines.

Those Marines will be ready to fight.

So the mission for those Marines, they can do anything from supporting special operations

missions to taking an occupying ground, perhaps an island in the strait, but they're

an incredible pressure point on what is left of the IRGC.

This is The Fox News rundown, Operation Epic Fury.

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Today we are again taking stock of Operation Epic Fury.

We heard a very positive tone on Tuesday from President Trump, who says Iran is negotiating

with the U.S. about this conflict.

The other side I can tell you, they'd like to make a deal.

And who wouldn't, if you were there, look, they're Navy's gun, they're Air Force's gun,

they're communications again.

So the conflict continues as to problems with oil tankers transiting the straight

of Hormuz.

Although the U.S. only gets about 2% of our petroleum products through that straight, about

89% goes to Asia and a lot more goes to important allies as well.

Our guest today is Dr. Rebecca Grant, military analyst and vice president of the Lexington Institute.

The straight of Hormuz is a top geopolitical prize for Operation Epic Fury.

Iran knows it, and their latest trick is to demand payments.

One was $2 million to take kind of a side-root near their coast around that isthmus by Oman

through the straight of Hormuz.

There's a tiny trickle of traffic, but most of the world's larger containerships and

petroleum movers are reluctant to send a ship through there.

U.S. Central Command has pretty much taken out Iran's Navy, but they're still working

on threats like the anti-ship cruise missile batteries along the coast, and then on just

getting after the last pieces of the IRGC Navy and their mischief in the strait.

What exactly is that mischief, because it seems like the U.S. military should be going

in there and taking care of this quickly, but it hasn't been quick, and this still is

a major bone of contention, so what exactly is Iran doing?

Is it those missile launchers they have?

We've heard, of course, about many maritime mines as well.

How's the U.S. not able to control this yet?

We know Iran had a pretty big weapons capability, so there is some reporting that a few mines

may have been laid around the strait, and although we've taken out 44 mine laying vessels

and over 100 other Iranian naval vessels, there are still some small craft that are willing

to go up there and demand a kind of ransom-style passage for moving through the strait.

This is going to take a kind of a bigger decision.

First, Central Command has to finish working the targets that they've already got laid

out.

Then they'll have to decide how to implement a zone defense to get ships around the strait,

so real narrow lane, two miles wide inbound, another one, two miles wide outbound.

We need our exquisite maritime surveillance that we're getting from our P8, our big navy

drones like MQ4 Triton, and others.

We're going to have to find a way to keep watch on that strait so that Iran can't run

it like a toll road.

Another thing the United States is working on doing is taking out these missile launchers.

These mobile missile launchers that Iran has, they can move them around.

They're hard to hunt down, but it does seem like there is some progress being made against

these targets.

These are the missile launchers that are being used to target Israel and, of course, target

other Gulf states, maybe most notably United Arab Emirates.

Where are we in hunting down their missile launchers?

We're doing a very good job.

Iran does continue to take a couple pot shots at the Gulf countries like UAE, Bahrain,

Goddard, and others.

But a lot of the gun camera footage you're seeing now is that hunt against mobile missile

launchers, and they're the fact that we have air dominance over the strait and over Iran's

skies is very, very helpful because if a missile launcher gets into position and fires,

we're able to detect that motion and, of course, that heat flare, oftentimes thanks to

the U.S. space force, and then to go after those targets.

But there will be missile launchers that we're trying to hide out.

We're running down the last of that set at this point, and that's why you see the ballistic

missile attacks.

They've dropped a lot.

It's not going to go to absolute zero just yet.

This is still a combat zone, but our central command air forces are doing a great job hunting

them down and striking them and blowing them up.

It's really cool to know the space force is involved in this as well, because I don't

know if they get enough play or talking about his other pieces of the U.S. military.

So shout out to the space force.

Really cool stuff there.

All right, speaking of missiles and ballistic missiles, Dr. Grant, we want to talk about

this missile launch that has gotten all sorts of attention with Iran targeting Diego Garcia

Island.

Now this island was a lot further out than what we thought Iran's capabilities were

for missile launches.

Can you just talk about why it was such a surprise and what this might mean for Iran's

actual capabilities to launch missiles of greater distance?

A shock for two reasons.

One, it's one of our most important forward bomber bases for the B2 stealth bomber, the

B1, the B52, and their air refueling tankers that go with them.

Plus, a big naval support facility there on Diego Garcia, very key base.

The second was the prize was that Iran was able to collage together, probably a space

launch type of missile, maybe lighten the warhead, add some propellant, add in a stage,

and attempt to reach that far.

That tells you that Iran would not hesitate to target Europe or to target anything that

they could reach.

Thank you for us.

There was a US Navy warship, probably a destroyer in place and watching that.

The intercept, this took place in the mid course of that Iranian missile flight, about 65,000

feet up in the exo atmosphere, hit to kill strike on that Iranian missile.

Our best defense against Iran's long-range missiles really is our Navy sea-based missile

defense SM-3 missile and family along with that great Aegis radar.

It hats off to them for taking that shot.

Yeah, unbelievable.

It's like shooting a bullet out of the sky with a bullet and you're doing it from a warship,

so it's absolutely incredible.

We're talking about the war and getting specific today with Dr. Rebekah Grant.

She is vice president of the Lexington Institute and also happens to be a weapons expert.

Dr. Grant, maybe no bigger weapon than a US Marine.

We've had word about US Marines actually heading towards the area.

Now the exact number has been disputed.

What they'll be doing, we don't know, but as it stands today, do you see that maybe

the next phase of this conflict including American boots actually on the ground in Iran

or at least in the Middle East?

Well, first let me tell you, those Marines will be ready to fight.

They're embarked on the USS Tripoli.

That's one of our newer amphibious ships.

It's sort of a helicopter carrier and brings not only helicopters and the tilt rotor aircraft,

but F-35Bs in the air wing as well, that stealth fighter of the jump jet.

So the mission for those Marines, they can do anything from supporting special operations

missions to taking an occupying ground, perhaps an island in the strait, but they're an incredible

pressure point on what is left of the IRGC.

And those Marines on Tripoli will significantly add to the capability.

They may be backed up then again by another amphibious ship that may be on route called the

boxer again with embarked Marines.

Warships, missiles, bombers, drones, and now, even US Marines all in or near the arena

of war in the Middle East.

Even epic fury aims to disable and weaken Iran, but just how close are we to that point?

We're talking today about the war with our weapons expert.

Dr. Becker Grant is Vice President of the Lexington Institute and knows this war down to the

last bullet.

We get more of her assessment, including how long this thing is going to linger as we continue

next on the Fox News rundown podcast.

We talked about the United States military hunting down the missile launchers.

Another thing they're working on is getting rid of the drones.

This has been a real big problem, especially for Dubai and other places have been targeted

by Iranian drones.

And we've heard the US military has actually been working on targeting drone manufacturing

centers in Iran.

Where do we stand on going after the drones and how big of a thorn in the side of the

US?

Are these Iranian drones?

Well, while the drones carry a fairly light warhead, you're never going to win the war

with those drones, but they can cause fear and casualties and damage.

What I've been glad to see is some major strikes on things like the Esfahan drone facility.

These are big factories and we use, I believe, heavy bombers link kind of a string of

ordinance to take those out, very precise targeting.

Remember, these Shahed drones are the same ones that Iran has allowed Russia to manufacture

and they've used 57,000 of them against Ukraine.

That's in Russian hands.

We continue to see Iranian drones heading towards the Gulf States and trying to get to our

military bases.

But we do have great counter drone capabilities.

Our fighters are forming kind of a zone defense, really, from the med right through down to

the North Arabian Gulf with fighters on patrol, carrying a lot of air-to-air missiles to take

out drones on the ground and terrific point defense systems, not just patriot and sad, but

also newer systems like coyote, vampire, slamram, frankinsam, and others that are really

good at taking out drones and drones swarms, sometimes with electromagnetic effects.

I'm so glad you mentioned Ukraine here because early in this conflict, Ukraine said it was

going to lend help to the United States when it comes to drones.

Now, this Ukraine-Russia war has evolved into a drone war in many points and Ukraine's

drone technology is very, very evolved, they're doing a great job there.

What can the U.S. benefit from Ukraine helping when it comes to drones?

Yes, an American technology put together that integrated air picture for Ukraine's air

defenses.

They execute great.

And information coming from Ukraine can include the latest technical profile on how hostile

drones appear, what their flight pass are, what their electronic characteristics or radar

characteristics are.

And Ukraine has built some pretty decent short-range interceptors of their own that may be available

for Gulf states.

Really, it's all hands-on deck in the counter drone war from our carriers to our land-based

fighters and of course our partners in the Gulf, including, in fact, the Royal Air Force

from Britain, which has shot down a couple of drones operating with a F-35 squadron and

also a typhoon squadron from the Gulf.

Last question for you, Dr. Grant, and it's definitely the most important one, how much

longer?

I mean, this conflict is dragged on for a bit now.

The U.S. military has made big progress, but we are still fighting.

Where do you think we are in this and how much longer is the fighting going to continue?

How much longer until Admiral Cooper at Central Command says he is happy with the destruction

on the drones, the missiles, the Navy, and no nuclear?

So first, Central Command's got to say to the President, yes, we've worked that target

set.

That's condition number one.

I think we're looking at a little bit more here, but in the end, there's going to be

a terrific prize here, which is good control over the straight-of-formos and making America

and the Middle East much safer with the military threat of Iran basically gone.

Dr. Rebecca Grant, military analyst, Vice President of the Lexington Institute in just

a case you couldn't tell, she is our weapons expert and knows all of them.

Dr. Grant, we really appreciate your insight.

Thanks for being with us again on the Fox News rundown.

Thank you.

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