The head of the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), Admiral Brad Cooper, believes that in the event of a large-scale strike on Iran, U.S. forces would be able to compensate for the shortage of Patriot missile defense systems by weakening Tehran’s ability to launch large numbers of missiles, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources.

According to them, Cooper presented this assessment to U.S. President Donald Trump at a meeting with top advisers and military officials last Friday, where options for continuing strikes on Iran were considered.

The CENTCOM chief said that two weeks of strikes in the Strait of Hormuz area had significantly reduced Iran’s ability to attack ships, and the main bombing targets had been largely exhausted, the sources said.

They noted that Cooper considers the possible next step to be the resumption of large-scale hostilities in order to complete the destruction of the 20% of targets that the U.S. military had identified but did not hit during Operation Epic Fury.

According to the publication’s sources, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine informed the White House at the meeting about a significant reduction in stocks of air defense interceptor missiles.