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Key Points
- US stealth bombers struck Iran’s nuclear sites in a highly coordinated surprise raid.
- The Pentagon says the mission caused severe damage and Iran failed to launch a single counterattack.
- Gulf states are on alert as US warns of further strikes if Iran retaliates or resumes nuclear activity.
As Operation “Midnight Hammer” got underway, a group of B-2 bombers took off from their base in Missouri and were noticed heading out toward the Pacific island of Guam, in what experts saw as possible pre-positioning for any US decision to strike Iran.
But they were decoys. The real group of seven bat-winged, B-2 stealth bombers flew east undetected for 18 hours, keeping communications to a minimum, refuelling in mid-air, the US military revealed.
As the bombers neared Iranian airspace, a US submarine launched more than two dozen Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles. US fighter jets flew as decoys in front of the bombers to sweep for any Iranian fighter jets and missiles.
The attack on Iran’s three main nuclear sites was the largest operational strike ever by B-2 stealth bombers, and the second-longest B-2 operation ever flown, surpassed only by those following the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States by al Qaeda.
Iranian air missile systems did not see bombers, US says
The B-2 bombers dropped 14 bunker-busting GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators, each weighing 30,000 pounds (13,600 kg). The operation involved over 125 US military aircraft, according to the Pentagon.
From the US military’s perspective, the operation was a resounding tactical success. The Iranians were unable to get off a single round at the American aircraft and were caught completely flat-footed, General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at the Pentagon on Sunday.
“Iran’s fighters did not fly, and it appears that Iran’s surface to air missile systems did not see us throughout the mission,” Caine said. “We retained the element of surprise.”
Caine said initial battle damage assessments indicated that all three sites targeted sustained extremely severe damage and destruction, but he declined to speculate whether any Iranian nuclear capabilities might still be intact.
US defence secretary Pete Hegseth was more confident.
“It was clear we devastated the Iranian nuclear program,” he said, standing alongside Caine in the Pentagon briefing room.
Commercial satellite imagery indicated the US attack on Iran’s subterranean Fordow nuclear plant severely damaged or destroyed the deeply-buried site and the uranium-enriching centrifuges it housed, but the status of the site remained unconfirmed, experts said.
International Atomic Energy Agency director general Rafael Grossi has told CNN it was not yet possible to assess the damage done underground.
A senior Iranian source told Reuters that most of the highly enriched uranium at Fordow had been moved elsewhere before the attack. Reuters could not immediately corroborate the claim.
Satellite imagery from the US space technology company Maxar Technologies showed a long line of vehicles waiting outside an entrance of the facility on Thursday and Friday.
‘Very few people’ in Washington in the know
Midnight Hammer was highly classified, Caine said, “with very few people in Washington knowing the timing or nature of the plan”.
Many senior officials in the United States only learned of it on Saturday night from President Donald Trump’s first post on social media.
Hegseth said it took months of preparations to ensure the US military would be ready if Trump ordered the strikes. Caine said the mission itself, however, came together in just a matter of weeks.
Nuclear facilities in Iran. Source: Getty / Anadolu
What happens next?
Gulf states, home to multiple US military bases, were on high alert on Sunday as they weighed the risks of a widening conflict in the region.
Guarding against blowback, the US military also dispersed US military assets in the Middle East and heightened force protection for US troops.
Hegseth said the US military was positioned to defend itself in the Middle East, but also to respond against Iran if it goes through with longstanding threats to retaliate.
The Trump administration said it is not looking for a wider war with Iran, with Hegseth saying private messages had been sent to Tehran encouraging them to negotiate.
But Trump has also warned Iran that the US is prepared to hit additional targets if needed, using far greater force.
“Iran would be smart to heed those words. He said it before, and he means it,” Hegseth said.
