CENTCOM Chief Says Hormuz Campaign Reached Its Limit

Adm. Brad Cooper, the commander of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), advised the Pentagon, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and White House that nearly two weeks of sustained strikes had brought the bombing campaign around the Strait of Hormuz to the limit of its effectiveness, with most designated targets already exhausted, Axios reported Sunday.

The assessment was a central factor in President Donald Trump’s decision on July 25 to pause strikes against Iran.

Cooper told senior officials that continuing airstrikes would produce diminishing returns without a substantially larger escalation of the conflict, two sources familiar with his position told Axios.

The recommendation identified a strategic ceiling. The air campaign had significantly degraded Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping through the 21-mile-wide chokepoint but could not compel the strait’s reopening without an expansion of military operations that Trump’s advisers were not prepared to support.

Vice President JD Vance and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine separately raised concerns about munitions stockpile sustainability and escalation risks during White House discussions, CNN reported. The alignment of target exhaustion with materiel strain gave the president’s senior team a unified case for stopping operations.

The U.S. campaign, which began July 7 after Iran attacked merchant vessels in the strait, has paused for three consecutive days. Iran’s retaliatory strikes on Gulf infrastructure stopped in parallel.