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

That's pure automotive joy.

I'm Peter, the owner of Muscle Car Junior.

It started as a hobby, then I started posting about it.

Before I knew it, I built a business for storing muscle cars on Facebook Marketplace,

and the community of car lovers on Instagram.

Today, new customers send me what's that message is from all over.

Not bad for a hobby.

And how meta helps over 35 million American businesses, like Peter's Grow, at meta.com-slash-community.

Instagram Teen Accounts, automatic protections for teens.

Instagram Teen Accounts have built-in content settings, now inspired by 13-plus movie ratings,

and limits for who can contact teens.

Plus, teens under 16 can't change these default safety settings, without parental approval.

So parents can help teens connect safely.

Instagram Teen Accounts, automatic protections for who can contact teens, and the content

they can see.

Learn more at Instagram.com-slash-teen-accounts.

I'm Mark Teeson.

I'm Kat Tenth.

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

Wednesday, March 25th, 2026.

I'm John Sawcia.

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.

Instagram Teen Accounts default teens into automatic protections for who can contact them,

and the content they can see.

Explore teen accounts, and all of our ongoing work to protect teens online at Instagram.com-slash-teen-accounts.

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 US 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.

But the conflict continues, as do problems with oil tankers transiting the straight-of-war

moves.

Although the US 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-war moves 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 route near their coast around that isthmus

by Oman through the straight-of-war moves.

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

petroleum movers are reluctant to send a ship through there.

US 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 straight.

What exactly is that mischief?

Because it seems like the US 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 US not able to control this yet?

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

may have been laid around the straight, 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 straight.

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

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

out.

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

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 straight 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

up the Gulf states, maybe most notably United Arab Emirates.

Where are we 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,

Qatar 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

straight 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.

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 forces 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 the Ron 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 clooge 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.

Lucky for us, there was a U.S. 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. Rebecca Grant.

The Navy is Vice President of the Lexington Institute, and also happens to be a weapons

expert.

Dr. Grant, maybe no bigger weapon than a U.S. Marine, and we've had word about U.S. 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 U.S. Marines, all in or near the

arena of war in the Middle East.

Operation Epic Fury aims to disable in the weekend Iran, but just how close are we to

that point?

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

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

bullet.

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

we continue next on the Fox News rundown podcast.

In 2024, a truck crashed into Cannot Animal Rescue, where I work.

146 of our dogs needed homes fast.

We asked for help on Facebook.

Our story spread through WhatsApp messages and Instagram reposts immediately people stepped

up.

And just six hours later, every dog was fostered.

I'll never forget how our community showed up for us.

Learn how over 3.5 billion people connect to what matters with meta at meta.com slash community.

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 fad, but

also newer systems like coyote, vampire, slam ram, franken sam, 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

with 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.

You've been listening to the Fox News rundown, and now stay up to date by subscribing

to this podcast at FoxNewsPodcasts.com.

Listen, add free on Fox News Podcasts plus on Apple Podcasts, and prime members can

listen to the show Add Free on Amazon Music, and for up to the minute news, go to FoxNews.com.