How the US pulled off ‘Midnight Hammer’, the secret attack Iran didn’t see coming

The US strikes that targeted Iran’s nuclear sites involved a decoy mission aimed at drawing attention from flight trackers as the largest-ever deployment of B-2 stealth bombers dropped 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs for the first time in combat.

The operation – dubbed “Midnight Hammer” – was detailed by top Pentagon officials on Sunday night (AEST). They described an extensive operation that included 125 aircraft overall, strikes by Tomahawk missiles launched from a US submarine and the use of 14 massive ordnance penetrator – or bunker-buster – bombs.

General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, provides more detail about the US attack on Iran.Credit: AP

The heart of the 37-hour operation was a feint in which a group of B-2 bombers flew west across the Pacific Ocean as decoys to maintain tactical surprise, according to Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.

News reports on Saturday morning that picked up on flight-tracker data suggested those planes were being deployed as a way to strong-arm Iran into fresh talks on its nuclear program.

While those planes got all the attention, another group of B-2s flew east carrying the bunker-busters.

The officials said dozens of air-refuelling tankers, a guided missile submarine, and fourth- and fifth-generation fighters were involved in the attack, which struck nuclear Iran’s facilities at Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz.

The briefing helped explain other data points that emerged in recent days, including a massive move by midair-refuelling tankers last week that was widely reported at the time. The White House had promised on Thursday that President Donald Trump would make a decision on a strike “within two weeks”, suggesting there might be more time.

In the end, the operation on Sunday (AEST) was deemed a success by the Pentagon. No Americans were lost, and Iran didn’t fire at any of the US military assets, according to the officials.

Hegseth said members of Congress were only notified once the planes were out of danger, contradicting earlier reports that Trump had informed Republican congressional leadership beforehand.

The flights amounted to the second-longest flights in the B-2’s operational history, according to Hegseth and Air Force General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The longest was a 40-hour round trip in October 2001 in the initial phase of the Afghanistan war.

“This is a plan that took months and weeks of positioning and preparation so that we could be ready when the president of the United States called,” Hegseth said. “It took a great deal of precision. It involved misdirection and the highest of operational security.”

The officials said 75 precision-guided weapons were used, and the operation involved 125 aircraft.

Prior to the B-2 strikes on Fordow, a submarine with the Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group in the Arabian Sea fired 24 Tomahawk cruise missiles, according to Caine and a graphic released by the Pentagon.

Addressing the nation late Saturday, Trump claimed Iran’s “key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated”.

Caine was more cautious in his assessment: “Final battle damage will take some time, but initial battle damage assessments indicate that all three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction,” he said.

Joseph Votel, a former commander of the US Central Command and now a fellow at the Middle East Institute, said the US planes could yet return to Iran to ensure the job was finished.

“It would not be a surprise to me if, after an assessment period, we went back in and re-struck some of these targets to make sure that we achieved the effect,” he said.

“That actually is a normal part of our military targeting process – to strike, assess and then, if necessary, strike again to achieve the results that we’re looking for.”

Hegseth said the mission was focused on destroying Iran’s nuclear program and not regime change in Tehran. He also said the mission had not been “open-ended”.

However, Secretary of State Marco Rubio made it clear that Iran needed to abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions altogether.

“At the end of the day, if Iran is committed to becoming a nuclear weapons power, I do think it puts the regime at risk,” Rubio said Sunday on Fox News.

“I really do. I think it would be the end of the regime if they tried to do that.”

Bloomberg

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