Pentagon reveals how B-2 bombers struck Iran nuclear websites in mission dubbed
Washington — Senior Pentagon officers revealed new particulars in regards to the U.S. operation to bomb three nuclear websites in Iran, with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Workers saying it was the “largest B-2 operational strike in U.S. historical past” and inflicted “extraordinarily extreme harm and destruction” to the targets.
“This was a extremely categorized mission with only a few folks in Washington figuring out the timing or nature of this plan,” Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman, stated in a briefing on the Pentagon Sunday morning detailing the strikes towards the Iranian nuclear websites at Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan.
Caine stated the mission, dubbed Operation Midnight Hammer, included seven B-2 Spirit bombers that flew east from their base in MIssouri to Iran. The 18-hour flight required a number of in-flight refuelings, and the bombers met up with U.S. fighter jets and assist plane as soon as over land within the Center East in a “complicated, tightly timed maneuver,” Caine stated.
Map reveals Iran targets, Operation Midnight Hammer flight path
Caine spoke in entrance of a map displaying the flight path of the plane, and the timeline of key occasions within the operation:
Protection Division
At about 5 p.m. ET Saturday, simply earlier than the plane entered Iranian airspace, a U.S. submarine launched greater than two dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles towards targets on the web site in Isfahan. Because the bombers approached their targets, the U.S. deployed “a number of deception ways, together with decoys,” and fighter jets cleared the airspace forward of them, checking for enemy plane and surface-to-air missiles.
“We’re presently unaware of any photographs fired on the U.S. strike package deal on the way in which in,” Caine stated.
At about 6:40 p.m. ET, or 2:10 a.m. in Iran, the lead B-2 dropped two “bunker-buster” bombs often called the GBU-57 Huge Ordnance Penetrators, or MOPs, on the positioning at Fordo. Over the following 25 minutes, Caine stated, a complete of 14 MOPs could be dropped on two goal areas. The Tomahawk missiles landed at Isfahan after bombs have been dropped on the 2 different websites. Caine stated no photographs have been fired on the planes as they left Iranian airspace.
“Iran’s fighters didn’t fly, and it seems that Iran’s surface-to-air missile methods didn’t see us. All through the mission, we retained the component of shock,” Caine stated.
“Greater than 125 U.S. plane participated on this mission,” Caine stated, together with the B-2 bombers, fighter jets, refueling planes and surveillance plane. Greater than 75 precision-guided weapons have been used within the assault.
“Preliminary battle harm assessments point out that every one three websites sustained extraordinarily extreme harm and destruction,” Caine stated, noting {that a} full evaluation will take time.
The chairman warned Iran towards taking any retaliatory motion for the strikes.
“Our forces stay on excessive alert and are absolutely postured to reply to any Iranian retaliation or proxy assaults, which might be an extremely poor selection,” Caine stated. “We are going to defend ourselves.”
Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth known as the assault “an unbelievable and overwhelming success.”
“The order we acquired from our commander in chief was targeted, it was highly effective, and it was clear,” Hegseth stated on the briefing alongside Caine. “We devastated the Iranian nuclear program, however it’s price noting that the operation didn’t goal Iranian troops or the Iranian folks.”
He added: “The operation President Trump deliberate was daring, and it was good, displaying the world that American deterrence is again. When this president speaks, the world ought to hear.”
“Our B-2s went out and in … and again with out the world figuring out in any respect,” Hegseth stated. “In that means it was historic. A strike that included the longest B-2 Spirit bomber mission since 2001, and the primary operational employment of the MOP, a Huge Ordnance Penetrator.”
Mr. Trump introduced Saturday night that the U.S. had launched strikes towards Iran. He stated in a nationwide handle later Saturday evening that the websites “have been fully and completely obliterated.”
Flanked by Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance on the White Home, the president described the strikes as a “spectacular army success” and warned of “far better” assaults if Iran doesn’t “make peace.”
“If peace doesn’t come rapidly, we’ll go after these different targets with precision, velocity and ability, most of them will be taken out in a matter of minutes,” he stated. “There is no army on this planet that might have achieved what we did tonight, not even shut. There has by no means been a army that might do what happened just a bit whereas in the past.”
