By this point, we all get the gist of what happened last weekend.
Super-early Sunday morning Tehran time, US B-2 stealth bombers flew 37 hours nonstop from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri to Iran and back, dropping more than a dozen 30,000-pound “bunker buster” GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators (MOPs) on three Iranian nuclear enrichment facilities.
That’s pretty much where the clarity ends.
What’s happened since:
- The White House asserted that “Operation Midnight Hammer” rendered Iran’s nuclear program decimated, “totally obliterated,” and whatever other synonyms you can think of.
- Iran responded with a symbolic 14 missiles targeting Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. All were intercepted, except for one that, according to Trump, was “set free.” (Trump also said the US was warned of the attacks.)
- Trump on Monday declared a ceasefire in the “Twelve Day War,” which was promptly followed by fresh Israeli airstrikes, more missiles from Iran, and a big F-bomb from Trump in response.
- Per a leaked report, the DIA found that the strikes only set Iran’s enrichment back a few months.
- The White House said the report is “fake news,” but also that it was leaked by an “anonymous, low-level loser in the intelligence community.” Fighting words, those.
If you have been anywhere with internet access recently, most of this is probably not news. But let’s get into what you’re really here for: the tech that was actually used.
Big picture: Of the more than 125 US aircraft that took part in the mission, the seven B-2 bombers were the star of the show. For the record, the US only has 20 of these $2B stealth bombers. That’s a whole lot of Pentagon airpower directed towards Iran.
Here’s what else was used, according to a briefing by SecDef Hegseth and Joint Chiefs chairman Dan Caine on Sunday morning:
- Fighters: The B-2s were assisted by “multiple flights of 4th and 5th generation fighters,” which swept “in front of the package for enemy fighters and surface-to-air missile threats.”
- Suppression: “High-speed suppression weapons” to take out Iran’s air defenses, likely the AGM-88 HARM (High-speed Anti-Radiation Missile) and AGM-88E AARGM (Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile) launched from EA-18G Growlers and F-16s in the B-2’s support detail.
- Tankers: “Dozens and dozens of air refueling tankers,” which facilitated the B-2’s nonstop flight with multiple in-air refuelings in the middle of the Atlantic.
- Subs: A guided missile submarine, likely Ohio-Class, which launched over 24 Tomahawk missiles at Iran’s Isfahan nuclear facility from somewhere in the Arabian Sea.
- ISR: And last but not least, a “full array of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance aircraft,” though Caine didn’t say which ones (likely Boeing’s RC-135 and P-8 Poseidon).
In case you’re keeping count, that makes over 75 different precision-guided weapons, according to Hegseth and Caine.
Munition madness: “Bunker Buster” is now a household name, and for good reason.
The Boeing-made GBU-57 MOPs, which weigh 30,000 pounds each and are the world’s most powerful non-nuclear bombs, contain over 5,000 pounds of explosives. Operation Midnight Hammer marked the first operational use of these big ‘ol’ bombs since their initial development in the early 2000s.
Israel’s Arsenal: Israel’s Operation Rising Lion aerial campaign against Iran—which began on June 13—was led by the F-35I Adir, the F-16I Sufa, and the F-15I Ra’am, all Israeli-modified equivalents of US fighter jets. The Adir, the Israeli version of the F-35 Lightning II, is the most advanced flavor.
Israel–and by that we mean Mossad—also used:
- Armed drones smuggled into Iran. (Spiderweb-coded, are we right?)
- Precision weapons prepositioned for close-range strikes, also smuggled into Iran.
- AI software to identify sites, vehicles, and individuals (including over 10 top Iranian military officials) to target.
- Good ol’ phones to call Iranian generals and threaten, well, imminent death if they didn’t get the heck out of Dodge.
The other side of the equation: We’d be remiss if we didn’t touch on what Iran fired back.
The Islamic Republic launched 400 missiles towards Israel across 17 salvos during its retaliatory strikes. Plus, they threw in about 1,000 drones, namely the Shahed-131 and 136. Most of these were intercepted by Israel’s air defense systems and electronic warfare tools, but a few made impact.
Iranian officials also say they used “Fattah 1” hypersonic missiles against Israel, but that’s raised some eyebrows. As Jack Watling, a senior fellow at RUSI, told AP, “The Iranians don’t have the capacity to manufacture them.”
However, the IDF did say that Iran struck Israel with a ballistic missile armed with a cluster munition warhead. Only two missiles in Iran’s arsenal—the Scud-like Qiam and the larger, more advanced Khorramshahr—are equipped to carry the type of cluster munitions reported.
During the US strikes, “Iran’s fighters did not fly, and it appears that Iran’s surface-to-air missile systems did not see us,” Caine said. Not a good look for Iran or Russia, which manufactures a lot of Iran’s air defense systems.