“A short time ago, the US military carried out massive, precision strikes on the three key nuclear facilities in the Iranian regime: Fordow, Natanz and Esfahan. Everybody heard those names for years as they built this horribly destructive enterprise.
Our objective was the destruction of Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world’s number one state sponsor of terror.
Tonight, I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success.”
Donald Trump’s insane speech at the White House was delivered with a full bingo house of his quirks and idiosyncrasies; as he told the world that the US military had carried out precision strikes on three key nuclear sites in Iran, his lower lip gurns and wandering hands could not hide the delight.
As the world reacts to the disastrous situation kept alive by the leader of the so-called Free World©, we now know that the mission to bomb Iran was called “Midnight Hammer”.
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth — best known for accidentally adding a journalist to a top-secret online messaging group — told reporters that Midnight Hammer had required “months of preparation” and marked “the longest B-2 mission since 2001.”
The B-2 Spirit stealth bomber remains the only aircraft capable of deploying the now-famous 30,000-pound GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators, commonly known as “bunker busters,” which were used to strike Iran’s underground facilities at Fordow.
U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine said that seven Spirit bombers were deployed to Iran, each with two crew members. He also confirmed that the attack package included U.S. submarines that launched 30 Tomahawk missiles at Iranian targets; he also noted the involvement of both fourth- and fifth-generation aircraft – including F/A-18s, F-22 Raptors, and F-35 Lightning IIs.
The exact cost of the mission remains unknown, but for context: each B-2 bomber is worth over $2 billion, an F-35 runs around $100 million, and the USS Carl Vinson — a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier — cost roughly $4.5 billion. Caine said that “more than 125 US aircraft participated in this mission”, so who knows how long the bill will be when it comes in.
Iran later confirmed the strikes on all three sites but stated the facilities had been evacuated beforehand. In response, Iran launched a salvo of missiles at Israeli cities including Tel Aviv and Haifa, injuring at least 86 people.
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