Gen. Dan Caine, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Sunday is “way too early” to assess whether Iran still has nuclear capability following strikes on three of its major nuclear facilities, and described the mission, “Operation Midnight Hammer” as a “complex and high-risk mission carried out with exceptional skill and discipline by our joint force.”
“This operation was designed to severely degrade Iran’s nuclear weapons infrastructure,” Caine told reporters at the Pentagon. “It was planned and executed across multiple domains and theaters, with coordination that reflects our ability to project power globally with speed and precision at the time and place of our nation’s choosing.”
He added that very few people knew the timing or the nature of the plan.
Outlining the mission, Caine said that a midnight Friday into Saturday morning, U.S. Eastern Time, a large B-2 strike package launched from the United States.
“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,” said Caine. “The main strike package, comprised of seven B-2 Spirit bombers, each with two crew members, proceeded quietly to the east with minimal communications throughout the 18-hour flight into the target area.”
And once over land, the B-2s linked up with escort and support aircraft in a “complex, tightly-timed maneuver plan.
“At approximately 5 p.m. Eastern Standard Time last night and just prior to the strike package entering Iran, a U.S. submarine in the Central Command area of responsibility launched more than two dozen Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles against key surface infrastructure targets at Esfahan,” he said.
And, he added, “at approximately 6:40 p.m. Eastern standard time, or 2:10 a.m. Iran time, the lead B-2 dropped two GBU 57 massive ordnance penetrator weapons on the first of several points at Fordo.”
A total of 14 “bunker buster” bombs were dropped against two nuclear target areas, and all three Iranian targets were hit between 6:40 p.m. and 7:05 p.m. Eastern time, said Caine.
He added that the United States is not aware of any shots fired at its planes 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,” he said. “Throughout the mission, we retained the element of surprise. “
He added that it will take some time to assess the damages, “but initial battle damage assessments indicate that all three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction.”
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
