Washington — Senior Pentagon officials revealed new details about the U.S. operation to bomb three nuclear sites in Iran, saying it was the “largest B-2 operational strike in U.S. history.”
“This was a highly classified mission with very few people in Washington knowing the timing or nature of this plan,” Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine said in a briefing at the Pentagon Sunday morning.
Caine said the mission, dubbed Operation Midnight Hammer, included seven B-2 Spirit bombers, flying east from their base in MIssouri to Iran. The 18-hour flight required multiple in-flight refuelings, and the bombers met up with U.S. fighter jets once over land in the Middle East.
At about 5 p.m. ET Saturday, just before the aircraft entered Iranian airspace, a U.S. submarine launched more than two dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles against targets inside Iran. As the aircraft approached their targets, the U.S. deployed “several deception tactics, including decoys,” as fighter jets cleared the airspace ahead of the bombers, checking for enemy aircraft and surface-to-air missiles.
“We are currently unaware of any shots fired at the strike package on the way in,” Caine said.
The bombers dropped two “bunker-buster” bombs known as the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators, or MOPs, on the site at Fordo at about 6:40 p.m. ET, or 2:10 a.m. local time. Over the next 25 minutes, Caine said, a total of 14 MOPs would be dropped on two target areas.
“Iran’s fighters did not fly, and it appears that Iran’s surface-to-air missile systems did not see us. Throughout the mission, we retained the element of surprise,” Caine said.
“More than 125 U.S. aircraft participated in this mission,” Caine said, including the B-2 bombers, previous generation fighters, refueling planes and surveillance aircraft.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called the strikes on the Iranian nuclear sites at Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan “an incredible and overwhelming success.”
“The order we received from our commander in chief was focused, it was powerful, and it was clear,” Hegseth said at the briefing alongside Caine. “We devastated the Iranian nuclear program, but it’s worth noting that the operation did not target Iranian troops or the Iranian people.”
He added: “The operation President Trump planned was bold, and it was brilliant, showing the world that American deterrence is back. When this president speaks, the world should listen.”
“Our B-2s went in and out … and back without the world knowing at all,” Hegseth said. “In that way it was historic. A strike that included the longest B-2 Spirit bomber since 2001, and the first operational employment of the MOP, a Massive Ordnance Penetrators.”
Mr. Trump announced Saturday evening that the U.S. had launched strikes against Iran. He said in a national address later Saturday night that the sites “have been completely and totally obliterated.”
Flanked by Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance at the White House, the president described the strikes as a “spectacular military success” and warned of “far greater” attacks if Iran does not “make peace.”
“If peace does not come quickly, we will go after those other targets with precision, speed and skill, most of them can be taken out in a matter of minutes,” he said. “There’s no military in the world that could have done what we did tonight, not even close. There has never been a military that could do what took place just a little while ago.”
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