Operation Midnight Hammer: How the US bombed Iran's nuclear sites without being detected

It was an unprecedented attack years in the making, involving last-minute misdirection aimed at giving the operation maximum tactical surprise.

Early Sunday, U.S. pilots dropped 30,000-pound bombs on two underground uranium enrichment facilities in Iran, in what American military leaders described as a decisive blow to Tehran’s nuclear program — long viewed by Israel as an existential threat and targeted in Israeli strikes for over a week.

Supporting the surprise offensive, American sailors fired dozens of cruise missiles from a submarine at another key site.

Operation Midnight Hammer

Dubbed Operation Midnight Hammer, the mission was characterised by a “precision strike” that “devastated the Iranian nuclear programme,” according to U.S. officials, who added that damage assessments were still ongoing.

Iran, however, denied any significant damage and vowed retaliation.

The B-2 stealth bombers, which launched from the U.S. heartland, delivered a combined 420,000 pounds of explosives. The mission was supported by a large fleet of aerial refuelling tankers and fighter jets — some of which launched their own weapons.

U.S. officials said the strike went undetected, with Iranian forces unable to respond to the incoming stealth aircraft, according to an AP report.

The operation hinged on deception and secrecy, officials said. It followed nine days of Israeli attacks that targeted Iran’s military leadership and air defences.

Decoys and disguise

Elements of misdirection were already in place before the bombers launched. Earlier, President Donald Trump publicly stated that he would decide in two weeks whether to strike Iran: a move meant to buy time for apparent negotiations while concealing the imminent assault.

On Sunday, one group of B-2 bombers flew west from Missouri toward a U.S. base in the Pacific, drawing the attention of plane spotters, government officials and media. Meanwhile, seven other B-2s carrying two “bunker buster” bombs each flew east with minimal communications to avoid detection.

Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a Sunday briefing that the deception was “part of a plan to maintain tactical surprise,” known only to “an extremely small number of planners and key leaders” in Washington and at U.S. Central Command in Florida.

After 18 hours of low-profile flying with aerial refuelling, the B-2s — each crewed by two airmen — reached the Eastern Mediterranean undetected and began their approach. Stealth U.S. fighter jets and reconnaissance aircraft escorted them to the Iranian border.

A Pentagon graphic showed their route over Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq. It was unclear whether those countries were notified of the overflight. Most U.S. lawmakers were also unaware of the operation, though some Republicans said they received a brief heads-up from the White House.

“Our B-2s went in and out and back without the world knowing at all,” U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters.

A coordinated assault

Roughly an hour before the bombers entered Iranian airspace, a U.S. submarine launched more than two dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles at key nuclear targets, including a uranium preparation site in Isfahan, according to Gen. Caine.

The bombers encountered no Iranian fighter jets or anti-aircraft missiles as they closed in.

At 6:40 p.m. in Washington and 2:10 a.m. in Tehran, the first B-2 dropped its pair of GBU-57 “massive ordnance penetrators” on the heavily fortified Fordo enrichment facility. It marked the first-ever combat use of the 30,000-pound "bunker buster," designed to burrow deep underground before detonating.

While Fordo bore the brunt of the bombing, a few of the giant bombs were also dropped on the Natanz enrichment facility.

The aerial bombardment lasted about 30 minutes. Cruise missiles from the submarine were the final American munitions fired, targeting a third nuclear site at Isfahan, Caine said.

Both Iranian authorities and the UN nuclear watchdog reported no immediate signs of radioactive contamination at the targeted sites.

The numbers

The mission included:

• 75 precision-guided weapons, including 14 GBU-57 bombs and more than two dozen Tomahawk missiles.
• 125 aircraft, encompassing bombers, fighter escorts and refuelling planes.

A woman in the cockpit
While Hegseth referred to “our boys in those bombers,” a U.S. official, speaking anonymously due to lack of authorisation, confirmed that one of the B-2 pilots was a woman.

A historic strike
Gen. Caine said the scale and tactics of the mission made it historically significant.

“This was the largest B-2 operational strike in U.S. history, and the second longest B-2 mission ever flown, exceeded only by those in the days following 9/11,” he told reporters.

With inputs from AP