President Barack Obama said Tuesday that the Gulf oil spill "is an unprecedented environmental disaster" that will be met with an "unprecedented response."

"This is an assault on our shores and we're going to fight back with everything we've got," he said during a visit with military personnel at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida.

The administration "will do whatever it takes for as long as it takes" to deal with the spill, he promised.

Obama repeated a pledge to force BP to provide economic compensation for the economic damage caused by the spill.