Historic Mission

Nothing happens for decades, then decades happen in a day (or night.) Operation Midnight Hammer will go down in history and be studied for centuries to come. The stuff of legend.

President Trump removed the greatest threat the free world faced.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised American strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities early Sunday morning, thanking US President Donald Trump for bringing “peace through strength.”

“President Trump and I often say peace through strength. First comes strength, then comes peace. And tonight, President Trump and the United States acted with a lot of strength,” he said in an English-language statement.

The premier called the US “truly unsurpassed” in its strikes on Iran, adding that Trump’s “leadership today has created a pivot of history that can help lead the Middle East and beyond to a future of prosperity and peace.”

“President Trump, I thank you. The people of Israel thank you. The forces of civilization thank you,” he continued.

Related: President Trump’s Great Military Deception Strategy: Took Out Iran’s Nukes, Avoided World War III, and Not One American Died

Inside Operation Midnight Hammer: US dropped 14 bunker-buster bombs on Iran’s Fordow nuke site in biggest ever B-2 raid

By: NY Post, June 22, 2025

The US strike on Iranian nuclear sites — dubbed “Operation Midnight Hammer” — was the biggest ever attack by B-2 stealth bombers, and the longest flight the aircraft have made since 2001.

It also marked the first time that the US used the massive, 15-ton GBU-57 bunker buster bombs in a military attack — and the US used 14 of them.

The highly coordinated strike took Tehran by utter surprise Saturday night, with the terrorist state not launching any attacks at incoming American military personnel, according to Chief of the Joint Staff Gen. Dan Caine.

“We are currently unaware of any shots fired at the US strike package on the way in,” he said during a press conference with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon Sunday. “… We are unaware of any shots fired at the package on the way out.”

“Iran’s fighters did not fly, and it appears that Iran’s surface to air missile systems did not see us throughout the mission. We retained the element of surprise,” he added.

The 25-minute operation inside Iran began at 6:40 p.m. ET, with a lead American B-2 bomber dropped two GBU-57 “bunker buster” munitions on the “first of several aim points at Fordow,” Caine said.

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“The remaining bombers then hit their targets, as well, with a total of 14 MOPs (Massive Ordnance Penetrators) dropped against two nuclear target areas,” he said.

“All three Iranian nuclear infrastructure targets were struck between 6:40pm and 7:05pm ET.”

The operation ended with a barrage of Tomahawk cruise missiles, fired from an American submarine, “to ensure we retain the element of surprise throughout the operation.”

• MIDNIGHT HAMMER: SECDEF Pete Hegseth and CJCS General Dan “Razin” Caine Update on U.S. Strikes on Iran Nuclear Sites

Caine and Hegseth underscored the history-making nature of the strikes against Iran, noting that it was the first operational deployment of the GBU-57A/B MOP — the most powerful heavy-duty bunker buster bomb known to exist.

“It was historic, a strike that included the longest B-2 Spirit Bomber mission since 2001 and the first operational employment of the MOP, a massive ordinance penetrator,” Hegseth said.

Bunker busters: Everything to know about the $500M bombs

A 15-ton “bunker buster” bomb was likely needed to destroy the last untouched nuclear facility in Iran, and only the US had one.

Such a powerful weapon — the largest non-nuclear bomb in the US arsenal — was needed because the target, the Fordow fuel enrichment plant, is built some 300 feet inside a mountain near the city of Qom, two hours south of Tehran.

The heavyweight explosive is known as a GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator and was designed by Boeing for the United States Air Force.

Its huge weight means it can only be delivered with a B-2 Spirit stealth bomber — a jet that Israel’s air force does not possess.

“The United States controls the bomber and the bomb,” John Spencer, chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point military academy, recently told The Post.

“By weight and kinetic force, the GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator is designed to penetrate a certain amount of distance into the ground before it blows,” said Spencer.

“That’s why these bunker busters are called Penetrators. They penetrate the ground before they explode. The explosion is strategically delayed.”