US military leaders banked on military deception to get bombers into Iran for surprise strikes on its nuclear program, the secretary of defense and the top US general shared Sunday.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force Gen. Dan Caine detailed the complexity of the mission, which centered on tactical surprise, at a rare Pentagon press briefing Sunday morning.
The operation — Midnight Hammer — began late Friday night when a “large strike package” of bomber aircraft took off from Missouri.
Reports came out Saturday about B-2 bombers flying toward Guam in the Western Pacific. The movements are now known to have been part of an intentional effort to misdirect attention.
Over the weekend, “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 and in Tampa,” Caine said, referring to Central Command’s US headquarters in Florida.
US Department of Defense
While those aircraft flew to the Pacific theater, the main effort, seven B-2 Spirit bombers and numerous refueling aircraft needed to keep the bombers airborne, flew east to Iran, an 18-hour flight to the target area. The bombers were heading for Fordow and Natanz.
As the main effort aircraft approached the Middle East, the US deployed even more decoy aircraft to draw attention away from the bombers.
According to military doctrine, deception operations are normally deployed to cause ambiguity or confusion. That can include intentional misallocating personnel or equipment.
Meanwhile, just before the aircraft entered Iranian airspace, a nearby US submarine readied two dozen Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles for strikes on Esfahan, Caine said.
Caine noted that bomber pilots used minimal communications throughout the duration, likely to minimize any risks of highlighting their presence, and quietly joined with nearby escort aircraft before proceeding to bombing sites.
Pressing in, “fourth and fifth generation aircraft pushed out in front of the strike package at high altitude and high speed,” he said, “sweeping in front of the package for enemy fighters and surface-to-air missile threats.”
“US protection package employed high-speed suppression weapons to ensure safe passage of the strike package with fighter assets employing preemptive suppressing fires against any potential Iranian Surface to Air threats,” Caine said of efforts US forces took to mitigate threats to the bombers. Military leaders are not aware of any Iranian attempts to engage US aircraft.
DoD photo by U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Alexander Kubitza
A total of 14 GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator bombs were used against two nuclear sites, he said. The third, Esfahan, sustained strikes from the submarine’s Tomahawks, fired only after the bombers had completed strikes against the other two locations to maintain the element of surprise.
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Over 125 US aircraft participated in the mission — bombers, fighter aircraft, dozens of refueling tankers, and various intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft, Caine said.
“In total, US forces employed approximately 75 precision-guided weapons during this operation,” Caine said.
Hegseth called the mission “an incredible and overwhelming success,” though both men acknowledged that it is still too early to discern the full extent of the damage to facilities and to what extent the degradation could impact Iran’s ability to rebuild.
“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 operation marked the first combat use of the GBU-57 MOP, which weighs 30,000 lbs and can only be carried by the B-2 Spirit bomber aircraft. The heavy weapon is designed to penetrate the most fortified bunkers, including those located deep underground.
Pentagon leadership said that the strike mission has reinforced American deterrence. It’s unclear how Iran may respond.
“I think Tehran is certainly calculating the reality that planes flew from the middle of America in Missouri overnight, completely undetected over three of the most highly sensitive sites, and we were able to destroy nuclear capabilities,” Hegseth told reporters. “We believe that will have a clear psychological impact on how they view the future, and we certainly hope they take the path to negotiate peace.”
