The US has revealed details of a secretive bombing raid on Iran’s nuclear sites, called Operation Midnight Hammer.
The mission used stealth bombers, deception flights, and precision-guided weapons.
General Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the mission involved an 18-hour round trip, multiple mid-air refuelings, and complex coordination.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said American bombers went “in and out and back without the world knowing at all.”
The mission started at 00:01 EDT (05:01 BST) with seven B-2 Spirit stealth bombers departing Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri.
The bombers carried GBU-57 bunker buster bombs. These can penetrate over 18m (60ft) of concrete and are designed to hit fortified targets like Iran’s Fordo nuclear site, buried deep within a mountain.
At the same time, another set of B-2 bombers was deployed in the opposite direction, flying over the Pacific in a planned decoy operation.
General Caine said only a few top officials knew about the decoy flight. “The planes that flew west… were a deception effort known only to an extremely small number of planners and key leaders,” he said.
The real strike team flew east across the Atlantic. They were joined in the Middle East by support aircraft around 17:00 EDT (22:00 BST), just before entering Iranian airspace.
Patrycja Bazylczyk, a missile defense expert, said Israeli control of Iranian skies allowed the US bombers to “operate with impunity.”
US officials said no Iranian fighters launched and no surface-to-air missiles were fired. Iran’s defenses appeared silent.
As the bombers moved into position, the US launched more than two dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles from a submarine in the Arabian Sea. These were aimed at the nuclear site in Isfahan.
Dr. Stacie Pettyjohn said this enabled “a coordinated surprise attack on multiple sites.”
At 18:40 EDT (23:40 BST), the lead B-2 dropped two Massive Ordnance Penetrators (MOPs) on the Fordo facility.
Other bombers followed. In total, 14 bunker buster bombs were dropped on Fordo and Natanz.
Meanwhile, the Tomahawks hit Isfahan, over 200km away. The timing was set so both attacks landed within minutes of each other.
All targets were hit within 25 minutes. By 19:30 EDT (00:30 BST), the bombers had left Iranian airspace and began their return to the US.
In total, the US used about 75 precision-guided weapons and more than 125 aircraft in the operation.
Dr. Pettyjohn described it as “an incredibly complicated and very sophisticated attack that no other country in the world could have performed.”
Despite that, she warned it’s unclear if it will “permanently set back Iran’s nuclear program.”
President Trump declared the mission a success. US officials said Iran’s nuclear capability was “obliterated.”
Iran has acknowledged the strikes but claimed the damage was minimal. It has not released a full account of what happened.
Independent verification is ongoing. Satellite images may eventually confirm the extent of destruction at the underground sites.
(BBC)
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