Dan Caine
U.S. Air Force general; Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as of 2026. The senior U.S. military officer and principal military advisor to the President and the Secretary of War.
In April 2026 reporting, Caine cited a combined figure of approximately 1,700 ballistic missiles and one-way attack drones intercepted by U.S. and Gulf forces during operation-epic-fury (src-counter-drone-middle-east-jiatf-2026-04).
Caine appeared with pete-hegseth at the April 29, 2026 house-armed-services-committee FY27 posture hearing as the 22nd Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (src-hegseth-fy27-posture-testimony-2026-04).
Quoted in The War Zone’s June 2026 analysis of the reported “jellyfish” Iranian drone formation, describing the rescue-force close-in gunfight: “A-10s and […] drones and other tactical aircraft were violently suppressing and engaging the enemy… to keep them away from the front-seater and allow the pickup force to get into the objective area” (src-twz-jellyfish-drone-analysis-2026-06).