Maj. Stuart Shippee, a B-2 Spirt pilot assigned to the thirteenth Bomber Squadron, marshals a B-2 Spirit, deployed from Whiteman Air Drive Base, Mo., at Andersen Air Drive Base, Guam, in assist of train Valiant Defend 24, June 13, 2024. (U.S. Air Drive photograph by Workers Sgt. Kristen Heller)
WASHINGTON — Hours after the US carried out a shock, important army operation in opposition to three Iranian nuclear websites, prime protection officers unveiled the small print what the Pentagon referred to as Operation Midnight Hammer, which concerned seven B-2 bombers and the primary recognized operational use of a 30,000-pound bunker buster bomb.
“The president approved a precision operation to neutralize the threats to our nationwide pursuits posed by the Iranian nuclear program and the collective self-defense of our troops and our ally, Israel,” Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth informed reporters at this time.
Whereas Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Dan Caine stated a battlefield evaluation is ongoing to judge the strikes, Hegseth referred to as it “an unbelievable and overwhelming success.”
Caine, a newly minted four-star normal, went on to some element simply how that US carried out the strike, saying it concerned greater than 125 US plane, “dozens” of aerial refueling tankers, a guided missile submarine and firing roughly 75 precision guided weapons.
Caine defined that round midnight on Friday a “strike package deal” with seven B-2 Spirit bombers departed Whiteman Air Drive Base in Missouri, flying east for 18 hours with “minimal communications” in direction of the “goal space.”
A Pentagon chart detailing Operation Midnight Hammer, offered at a June 22, 2025 press convention. (DoD)
As soon as these plane have been over land once more, they “linked up” with escort and assist plane “in a posh, tightly timed maneuver requiring actual synchronization throughout a number of platforms in a slim piece of airspace,” Caine stated.
By Saturday round 5 pm ET, simply earlier than the strike package deal was able to enter Iran, a US submarine situated contained in the US Central Command space of duty, launched greater than two dozen Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles in opposition to “key” floor infrastructure targets on the Isfahan website.
“Because the Operation Midnight Hammer strike package deal entered Iranian airspace, the US employed a number of deception ways, together with decoys, because the fourth- and fifth-generation plane pushed out in entrance of the strike package deal at excessive altitude and excessive velocity, sweeping in entrance of the package deal for enemy fighters and floor to air missile threats,” Caine defined.
FULL COVERAGE:
Because the strike package deal approached Fordo and Natanz, the US deployed “high-speed suppression weapons” to permit for a safer strategy round 6:40 pm ET.
The lead B-2 bomber then dropped two GBU 57 Huge Ordnance Penetrators on the “first of a number of purpose factors at Fordo,” Caine stated, noting that in complete, 14 MOPs have been dropped in goal areas at Fordo and Natanz.
As soon as the bombers had dropped the MOPs, these beforehand launched Tomahawk missiles struck Isfahan, he added.
“Following weapons launch, the Midnight Hammer strike package deal exited Iranian airspace, and the package deal started its return dwelling,” Caine stated.
Caine stated that it doesn’t seem the US jets have been fired upon in the course of the operation. “Iran’s fighters didn’t fly, and it seems that Iran’s floor to air missile methods didn’t see us,” he stated.
Hegseth stated that congressional management was notified of the operation as quickly as American planes have been out of hazard. (On X, White Home Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated the White Home made “bipartisan courtesy calls” to congressional management, chatting with minority chief Sen. Chuck Schumer “befor the strike,” although unable to achieve Home Democrat chief Rep. Hakeem Jeffries till after.)
As for the effectiveness of the strikes, Caine stated a “last battle harm will take a while, however preliminary battle harm assessments point out that each one three websites sustained extraordinarily extreme harm and destruction.”
The US, a backer of Israel, is the one recognized nation with the power to penetrate Iran’s nuclear websites deep underground and to take action, required the bombers dropping the 30,000-pound MOP for the primary time in an operations setting.
“It is a plan that took months and weeks of positioning and preparation in order that we might be prepared when the President of the US referred to as,” Hegseth stated. “It took quite a lot of precision. It concerned misdirection and the best of operational safety.”
Now, all eyes shall be on Tehran and the way the Islamic Republic responds, in addition to on whether or not the US conducts additional motion.
Hegseth stated the Midnight Hammer mission “was not, has not, been about regime change, however later Sunday President Donald Trump posted on Reality Social that if the “present Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change??? MIGA!!!”
UPDATED 6/22/2025 at 5:40pm ET to incorporate Trump’s feedback about “regime change” in Iran and White Home feedback about notifications to congressional management.
