A top military general confirmed the strategy that the Air Force is participating in Strait of Hormuz counter-operations aimed at pressuring and bottling up Iran.
Enforcing the U.S. blockade of the Strait is among the objectives of the Project Freedom military operation that War Secretary Pete Hegseth announced last month.
“That is the objective and the approach that the blockade is causing inside of Iran,” Chief of Staff Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach told the Senate Appropriations subcommittee after Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) asked about the military’s ability to block Iran, open up the Strait, and ensure a nuclear weapons ban.
Project Freedom is separate and distinct from Operation Epic Fury, which stems from Trump pre-emptively striking Iran on Feb. 28, alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Israeli Defense Forces.
In addition to enforcing the blockade, the goals of Project Freedom include providing 24-hour protection with a red, white, and blue dome over the Strait of Hormuz, ending Iran’s tolling system, and preventing potential shortages of energy worldwide.
“I think you're seeing that we are,” Wilsbach told the panel of senators. “Admiral Cooper with CENTCOM is executing that every single day. He's doing that with the joint force and the Air Force is providing strike capability overhead as well as intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance.”
President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post on June 9 that Iran was responsible for downing an American military helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz while patrolling over the Strait of Hormuz and that the U.S. must respond to the attack.
A drone boat rescued the crew of the Apache attack helicopter.
Hoeven noted that the committee would continue discussing the Iran conflict in a secure compartmentalized information facility.
Citing the 2024 drone attack on Tower 22, Sen. Christopher Coons (D-Del.) asked the military leaders whether current resources are sufficient.
The entire Department of War has requested approximately $10 billion in the 2027 budget to allocate toward counter-drone and counter-unmanned aerial systems technology, according to Wilsbach.
“We're going to stand up capabilities at 26 of our key installations for the Air Force,” he said. “Previously that was 10, so we're going to more than double that.”
Tower 22 is a base on the border of Jordan and Syria and is six miles away from the Iraqi border. A drone attack there killed three American troops and injured at least 34 others in 2024.