US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth indicated on Tuesday that the US military has the capability to destroy Iran's Pickaxe Mountain, the underground site suspected of housing elements of Tehran's nuclear programme.
"If anybody in the world can reach anything on God's green earth, it's the United States military, the most powerful military in the world," Hegseth said at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, in response to a question about whether the US has the capacity to destroy the facility.
The facility is buried deep inside a mountain in a manner that experts believe would be difficult to fully destroy, even with the heavy munitions used to target Iran's Fordow and Natanz facilities last summer.
Hegseth estimated the current costs of the Iran war at US$37.5 billion, up from a US$29 billion estimate provided in mid-May. He said the administration continues to believe it has the authorities necessary to continue the war without congressional authorisation, but noted that Iran is at its "weakest point militarily" in decades.
Gen Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the US has other capabilities in the diplomatic, informational, economic and military realms, but declined to discuss the possibility of US ground forces being deployed to Iran.
Both Hegseth and Caine argued for the administration's full US$1.5 trillion military funding request for 2027, saying the supplemental request is "not a substitute" for the president's full base budget request.
