 "Satellite image shows a close up view of destroyed buildings at Isfahan Nuclear Technology Centre, after it was hit by US airstrikes, in Isfahan, Iran. Maxar/Reuters")
On Saturday (June 22), amateur flight trackers spotted something completely different — they noticed America’s B-2 bombers taking off from a military base in Missouri — Whiteman Air Force Base — with some of them making their way towards the Pacific.
What they didn’t realise until much later is that they inadvertently spotted what was part of the grand deception by the Trump administration revealed later by the Pentagon to be called “Operation Midnight Hammer” — in which America struck three nuclear sites in Iran — Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan.
As the world still reels from America’s bombing of Iran, details have emerged of how exactly did the US military carry out these audacious strikes — which involved over 125 aircraft and took a total of just 25 minutes.
It all began with a ruse
According to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff US Air Force General Dan “Razin” Caine, Operation Midnight Hammer began on Saturday (June 22) when B-2 stealth bombers leaving the continental United States, headed out toward the Pacific island of Guam.
However, they were a decoy.
Caine told reporters on Sunday (June 23) that only a few knew of Operation Midnight Hammer. In fact, just two days before the strikes, Trump had said he would decide in two weeks if the US would bomb Tehran . This now appears to be a ruse, to lull Iran into a false sense of security. The UK, America’s closest ally, was informed only “shortly” before the US attack took place.
“As part of a plan to maintain tactical surprise, part of the package proceeded to the West and into the Pacific, as a decoy. A deception effort known only to an extremely small number of planners and key leaders here in Washington,” Caine told the press conference.
Caine reveals that the main strike package comprising seven B-2 bombers, each with two crew members, proceeded quietly to the east, instead, taking care to conduct only minimal communications.
Throughout the 18-hour flight, the aircraft were refuelled mid-air “multiple” times. Once overland, the B-2s linked up with escort and support aircraft in what military chiefs described as a “complex, tightly timed manoeuvre, requiring exact synchronisation across multiple platforms in a narrow piece of airspace”. Hardly any communication was permitted in case the Iranians picked up on any chatter.
As the planes continued to make its way, US President Donald Trump gathered in the White House’s Situation Room flanked by General Caine, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as well as his chief of staff, and other members of his Cabinet and inner circle. The group watched on as Operation Midnight Hammer reached its destination.
Closing in on Iranian targets
Shortly before the B-2 bombers entered Iranian airspace, a US submarine launched “more than two dozen” Tomahawk missiles against key surface infrastructure targets at Isfahan, the location of a significant research base and uranium conversion facility in central Iran.
Then, the US planes — including decoy aircraft in the form of “fourth and fifth generation” fighter jets — flew “at high altitude and high speed” in front of the B-2 bombers to draw out any Iranian Air Force fighters or ground-based air defence missiles.
Caine told the media, “Iran’s fighters did not fly, and it appears that Iran’s surface-to-air missile systems did not see us throughout the mission.”
Bombs are dropped
Between 2.10 am and 2.35 am Iranian time on Sunday (June 23), the US bombers reached the Fordow enrichment facility, built inside a mountain on the edge of Iran’s Great Salt Desert, as well as the Natanz complex, Iran’s primary uranium enrichment facility.
The US B-2 bombers dropped two of its 30,000 pound GBU-57/Bs — the Massive Ordnance Penetrators (MOPs), also known as bunker busters — on the first of several targets at Fordow in precision strikes. The remaining bombers then hit their targets, with a total of 14 MOPs dropped against two nuclear sites.
For the unaware, the bunker busters are the most powerful non-nuclear bomb in the US arsenal and designed to destroy targets buried so deep no other conventional weapon could reach them.
Caine revealed to the media that 25 minutes later, the final Tomahawk missile was fired and following this, the bombers began their return. He said that the mission appeared to have inflicted “extremely severe damage and destruction” on all three target sites.
Bombers exit Iran, make their way back to the US
After successfully striking Iran, the US warplanes turned around and headed back the way they had come, leaving Iranian airspace at 3 am. As the planes made their return, reports emerged on Iranian media of explosions in the region of the nuclear facilities.
A quarter hour later, Trump confirmed the operation — in the manner he does all important announcements — on his social media account on Truth Social, writing, “A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow. All planes are safely on their way home. Congratulations to our great American Warriors. There is not another military in the World that could have done this. NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE!”
Later addressing the world from the White House, Trump said that more of the same was on the table if Iran didn’t return to the negotiating table. He also described the airstrikes as a “spectacular military success”, adding that the three facilities targeted by the US had been “completely and totally obliterated.”
Caine told the media that “more than 125” American aircraft participated in the airstrikes, supported by “hundreds of maintenance and operational professionals” around the world.
Caine also told the media that the B-2 strikes was the second-longest combat mission ever flown by the aircraft.
While Trump and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said the targets were obliterated, General Caine said that damage assessments would take some time, but that “initial battle damage assessments indicate that all three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction”.
Iran’s response
Inside Iran, state media initially downplayed the damage, saying they had prepared for the attack, but it is also hard to verify those claims.
Moreover, Tehran has vowed to respond. “Now it is our turn to, without wasting time, as a first step, fire missiles at the US naval fleet in Bahrain and at the same time close the Strait of Hormuz to American, British, German and French ships,” Hossein Shariatmadari, a representative of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in the Kayhan newspaper.
The Islamic Republic also launched a new salvo of missiles at Israel, using their biggest missile — the Khorramshahr-4 missile , which is also called Kheibar.
By the end of Sunday, Iran’s parliament also approved a bill calling for the closing of the Strait of Hormuz , through which over a fifth of the world’s oil needs flows daily. Iran’s President, Masoud Pezeshkian, warned that the US must “receive a response” to its attacks.
With inputs from agencies