Inside Operation Midnight Hammer: US dropped 14 bunker-buster bombs on Iran in biggest ever B-2 raid
The US strike on Iranian nuclear sites was the biggest ever attack by B-2 stealth bombers and the first time the US aggressively used ‘bunker buster bombs’. Here are the details.
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The US strike on Iranian nuclear sites — dubbed “Operation Midnight Hammer” — was the biggest ever attack by B-2 stealth bombers, and the longest flight the aircraft have made since 2001.
It also marked the first time that the US used the massive, 15-ton GBU-57 bunker buster bombs in anger — and the US used 14 of them.
The highly co-ordinated strike took Tehran by utter surprise Saturday night, with the terrorist state not launching any attacks at incoming American military personnel, according to Chief of the Joint Staff Gen. Dan Caine.
“We are currently unaware of any shots fired at the US strike package on the way in,” he said during a press conference with Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon Sunday. “ … We are unaware of any shots fired at the package on the way out.”
“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,” he added.
The 25-minute operation inside Iran began at 6:40pm Eastern US time (8:40am AEST), with a lead American B-2 bomber dropping two GBU-57 “bunker buster” munitions on the “first of several aim points at Fordow,” Gen. Caine said.
The 13,600kg weapon, also known as the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, is designed to penetrate up to 60 metres underground before exploding.
“The remaining bombers then hit their targets, as well, with a total of 14 MOPs (Massive Ordnance Penetrators) dropped against two nuclear target areas,” he said.
“All three Iranian nuclear infrastructure targets were struck between 6:40pm and 7:05pm ET.”
The operation ended with a barrage of Tomahawk cruise missiles, fired from an American submarine, “to ensure we retain the element of surprise throughout the operation.”
Gen. Caine and Mr. Hegseth underscored the history-making nature of the strikes against Iran, noting that it was the first operational deployment of the GBU-57A/B MOP — the most powerful heavy-duty bunker buster bomb known to exist.
“It was historic, a strike that included the longest B-2 Spirit Bomber mission since 2001 and the first operational employment of the MOP, a massive ordinance penetrator,” Mr Hegseth said.
Gen. Caine also noted that Operation Midnight Hammer was the “second longest B-2 mission ever flown, “exceeded only by those in the days following 9/11.”
“The region, especially in Iraq, Syria and The Gulf, our forces remain on high alert and are fully postured to respond to any Iranian retaliation or proxy attacks, which would be an incredibly poor choice,” Gen. Caine warned Iran.
- This article first appeared in the New York Post
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