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Despite Pete Hegseth's boasts from the Pentagon this afternoon, it's still unclear how successful the US strikes on Iran last night were in reality.

Matthew Savill, director of military sciences at the Royal United Services Institute defence thinktank, says the nature of the facilities at Fordow under a mountain makes it difficult to establish the success of Operation Midnight Hammer.

He says: "Imagery can't show much about the damage down at the centrifuge enrichment hall, so the US and Israel will be relying heavily on intelligence from inside the Iranian system." 

If the Iranians choose a broader military response against US forces, there are targets across the Middle East, especially in Qatar, Bahrain, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, Savill adds.

But he explains such attacks would risk widening the conflict at a time of extreme vulnerability for the Iranian regime, and some US forces already appear to have been dispersed from locations such as Qatar. 

When it comes to attacks on US bases, UK troops could end up in the firing line, he adds.

Savill explains: "The UK is present at many of these locations, and would need protection from ballistic missiles provided by US Patriot batteries, while UK Typhoon jets at Cyprus could provide some air defences against drones and cruise missiles."

The size of the missile salvoes being launched at Israel is also decreasing in size, Savill notes, suggesting Iran's stockpiles are slowly running down. 

Israel, however, is unlikely to stop striking Iran, he thinks, given Benjamin Netanyahu's stated aim of causing wider damage to the Iranian regime.

We reported earlier that the UK prime minister was set to chair an emergency COBRA meeting this afternoon.

Sky News understands that it has taken place and concluded - although we are not expecting a readout of what was discussed.

Who exactly attended today's meeting is not clear, but Foreign Secretary David Lammy and Middle East minister Hamish Falconer were both seen entering Downing Street.

COBRA, which stands for Cabinet Office Briefing Room A, is often called in times of emergency, such as civil unrest, flooding, or an international issue.

The government has held a number of such meetings since Israel's first strikes on Iran last Friday.

More to bring you now from US defence secretary Pete Hegseth, who's speaking at the Pentagon.

When asked if the US was in contact with Iran, Hegseth said there were "both public and private messages being directly delivered to the Iranians".

These were being delivered in "multiple channels," he said.

Earlier today, Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi held his own news conference in Istanbul.

He said Tehran and Washington were in contact via Oman.

Hegseth added: "Iran understands precisely what the American position is, precisely what steps they can take to allow for peace."

The next question is about coordination with the Israelis around the US strikes on Iran, and if they were involved at all.

US secretary of defence Pete Hegseth replies: "Certainly Israel had incredible success, especially at the beginning, and ongoing in degrading Iranian capability, degrading Iranian launchers.

"It's been incredible to watch what our ally Israel has been able to do, and there certainly have been conversations."

He notes that the general who oversaw this operation "has worked closely in the defence of Israel for many years".

But this strike in particular was "US-operated and US-led".

The two US military leaders are now taking questions from journalists, and the first is if regime change was or is the goal.

US secretary of defence Pete Hegseth replies: "This mission was not and has not been about regime change.

"The president authorised a precision operation to neutralise the threats to our national interests posed by the Iranian nuclear programme, and the collective self-defence of our troops and our ally, Israel."

Donald Trump has previously said the US knows where Iran's supreme leader is hiding - and posted on his Truth Social platform this week that American forces would not kill him "at least not for now".

The second question is if the US military believes some of Iran's nuclear capability remains, despite the strikes, and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Dan Caine, replies that it is "way too early" to assess.

Take a look at our 11.45 post for more on how Iran's potential to make a nuclear weapon could continue, despite the strikes.

More to bring you now from the Pentagon news conference.

Dan Caine, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, the most senior US military official, went into details about the operation - which he revealed was called Midnight Hammer.

The US Air Force general laid out timings, as well as the weapons and equipment used.

He added initial battle damage assessments found all three sites suffered "extremely severe damage and destruction".

'Deception effort'

Caine said that at midnight on Friday, a large B-2 strike package of bombers launched from the US.

To maintain surprise, some bombers flew west into the Pacific, something described as a "deception effort".

During the 18-hour flight to the target, the US bombers underwent multiple refuellings. 

"It was planned and executed across multiple domains and theatres with coordination that reflects our ability to project power globally with speed and precision at the time and place of our nation's choosing," Caine said.

Tomahawk cruise missiles hit Isfahan

As the Operation Midnight Hammer bombers entered Iran, the US deployed "several decoys" and just before it did so, at 5pm EST, a US submarine launched more than two dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles at Isfahan.

14 bunker buster bombs used in Midnight Hammer

Caine went on: "At approximately 6.40pm EST, the lead B-2 dropped two GBU 57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator weapons on the first of several Aim points at Fordo.

"As the president stated last night, the remaining bombers then hit their targets."

More than 75 weapons were used in total, including 14 30,000lbs bunker buster bombs.

This marked their first operational use.

During questions, defence secretary Pete Hegseth said that he believed they had "achieved destruction of capabilities" at Fordow.

He said: "The battle damage assessment is ongoing, but our initial assessment, as the chairman said, is that all of our precision munitions struck where we wanted them to strike and had the desired effect, which means especially in Fordow, which was the primary target here, we believe we achieved destruction of capabilities there."

 Secretary of defence Pete Hegseth opens the news briefing by saying US forces "conducted a precision strike in the middle of the night against three nuclear facilities in Iran".

The aim was "to destroy or severely degrade Iran's nuclear programme".

"It was an incredible and overwhelming success," he declares. "We devastated the Iranian nuclear programme."

Hegseth goes on to say that President Trump has stated for over a decade that "Iran must not get a nuclear weapon", and thanks to last night's decision, "Iran's nuclear ambitions have been obliterated".

This operation was the "final blow" to Tehran's nuclear programme, Hegseth claims, and describes President Trump's plan as "bold" and "brilliant".

"When this president speaks, the world should listen. And the US military - we can back it up. The most powerful military the world has ever known - no other country on planet Earth could have conducted the operation that the chairman is going to outline this morning."

Nonetheless, President Trump "seeks peace", Hegseth continues, adding that Iran "should choose that path".

The defence secretary also reiterated that Iran should not retaliate, as the president emphasised last night.

"Every American involved in this operation performed flawlessly, and I want to give recognition to our allies in Israel as well," he adds.

"The United States does not seek war, but let me be clear - we will act swiftly and decisively when our people, our partners, or our interests are threatened."

A news briefing at the Pentagon - the home of the US military - is under way.

Secretary of defence Pete Hegseth and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Dan Caine (the most senior US military official) are speaking in the wake of last night's strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.

Watch live on Sky News, and in the stream at the top of this page.

A former senior British military intelligence officer has told Sky News that the world could face huge economic turbulence, depending on how Iran chooses to respond to the US strikes.

Phillip Ingram says what happens next - with the Iranian leadership likely to feel compelled to respond - could be "really, really worrying".

He told Sky News presenter Matt Barbet earlier: "If Iran does shut the Straits of Hormuz, between 20 and 30% of all the world's oil and gas goes through that strait. 

"The economic shock that would cause across the world would make what happened when Russia invaded Ukraine just over three years ago seem like small change."

Iran has other options, Ingram went on, with its proxies across the region.

Some of these, Ingram said, "were scary".

They range from terrorist activity to attacking US bases in the Middle East, he said.

Watch the full interview below:

The UK has further increased its "force protection" measures for its military bases and personnel in the Middle East to their highest level in the wake of the US strikes against Iran, Sky News understands.

This will involve greater security and heightened vigilance to protect British troops, equipment and bases.