DUBAI – It was an unprecedented attack years within the making, with some last-minute misdirection meant to provide the operation a robust component of shock.
U.S. pilots dropped 30,000-pound bombs early Sunday on two key underground uranium enrichment crops in Iran, delivering what American navy leaders consider is a knockout blow to a nuclear program that Israel views as an existential threat and has been pummeling for more than a week. American sailors bolstered the shock mission by firing dozens of cruise missiles from a submarine towards not less than one different website.
Dubbed Operation Midnight Hammer, U.S. officers say the plan was characterised by a “precision strike” that “devastated the Iranian nuclear program,” at the same time as they acknowledged an evaluation was ongoing. For its half, Iran denied that any important injury had been accomplished, and the Islamic Republic pledged to retaliate.
Taking off from the U.S. heartland, B-2 stealth bombers delivered a complete of 420,000 kilos of explosives, aided by an armada of refueling tankers and fighter jets — a few of which launched their very own weapons. U.S. officers mentioned Iran neither detected the inbound fusillade, nor mustered a shot on the stealthy American jets.
The operation relied on a collection of misleading ways and decoys to take care of the secrecy, U.S. officers mentioned hours after the assault, which was preceded by 9 days of Israeli assaults that debilitated Iran’s navy management and air defenses.
A decoy plan
Even earlier than the planes took off, parts of misdirection have been already in play. After setting elements of the plan in movement, Trump publicly introduced Thursday that he’d decide inside two weeks on whether or not to strike Iran — ostensibly to permit extra time for negotiations, however actually masking the approaching assault.
One group of B-2 stealth bombers traveled west from Missouri on Saturday as decoys, drawing the eye of newbie airplane spotters, authorities officers and a few media as they headed towards a U.S. air base within the Pacific. On the identical time, seven different B-2s carrying two “bunker buster” bombs apiece flew eastward, preserving communications to a minimal in order not to attract any consideration.
Air Pressure Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Employees, mentioned at Sunday’s briefing that it was all “a part of a plan to take care of tactical shock” and that solely “a particularly small variety of planners and key leaders” knew about it in Washington and Florida, the place U.S. Central Command relies.
After 18 hours of furtive flying that required aerial refueling, the armed B-2 Spirit bombers, every with two crew members, arrived on time and with out detection within the Japanese Mediterranean, from the place they launched their assault runs. Earlier than crossing into Iran, the B-2s have been escorted by stealthy U.S. fighter jets and reconnaissance plane.
A graphic launched by the Pentagon confirmed the flight route as passing over Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. It was unclear whether or not these nations have been notified of the U.S. overflight prematurely. Most U.S. lawmakers have been additionally saved at the hours of darkness, with some Republicans saying they have been offered a short heads-up by the White Home earlier than the strike.
“Our B-2s went out and in and again with out the world figuring out in any respect,” Secretary of Protection Pete Hegseth informed reporters Sunday.
A multifaceted assault
About an hour earlier than the B-2s entered Iran, Caine mentioned {that a} U.S. submarine within the area launched greater than two dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles in opposition to key targets, together with a website in Isfahan the place uranium is ready for enrichment.
Because the U.S. bombers approached their targets, they watched out for Iranian fighter jets and surface-to-air missiles, however encountered none.
At 6:40 p.m. in Washington and a pair of:10 a.m. in Tehran, the primary B-2 bomber dropped its pair of GBU-57 large ordnance penetrators on the deeply buried Fordo uranium enrichment plant. It was the primary time these so-called “bunker busters” had ever been utilized in fight. Every 30,000-pound bomb is designed to burrow into the bottom earlier than detonating a large warhead.
The Fordo website obtained the majority of the bombardment, although a few the big bombs have been additionally dropped on a uranium enrichment website at Natanz.
The U.S. bombs fell for about half an hour, with cruise missiles fired from submarines being the final American weapons to hit their targets, which included a 3rd nuclear website at Isfahan, Caine mentioned.
Each Iran and the U.N. nuclear watchdog mentioned there have been no speedy indicators of radioactive contamination across the websites.
A have a look at the numbers
The mission included:
— 75 precision-guided weapons: these included 14 GBU-57 “bunker buster” bombs deployed by the seven B-2 Spirit stealth bombers, and greater than two-dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from a U.S. submarine.
— 125 plane, together with the B-2 bombers, fighter jets and refueling planes.
A feminine pilot
Hegseth mentioned Sunday that “our boys in these bombers are on their means residence proper now.”
However a U.S. official mentioned one lady was amongst these piloting the B-2 bombers. The official spoke on the situation of anonymity as a result of they weren’t approved to discuss the mission publicly.
A little bit of historical past
Caine mentioned using the bunker-buster bombs made the mission historic, as did different parts.
“This was the most important B-2 operational strike in U.S. historical past, and the second longest B-2 mission ever flown, exceeded solely by these within the days following 9/11,” he informed reporters Sunday.
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Lolita C. Baldor in Narragansett, Rhode Island and Nicholas Ingram in Knob Noster, Missouri, contributed reporting. Kinnard reported from Chapin, South Carolina.
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