• Pentagon warns that Iran’s retaliationwould be an incredibly poor choice

Sopuruchi Onwuka, with agency reports

A combined fleet of more than 125 different aircraft participated in the US attack on Iran’s three nuclear sites in a mission code named Operation Midnight Hammer, the Pentagon declared in a briefing to the American public on Sunday.

The different aircraft deployed in the mission included the B-2 bombers, fighter jets, refueling planes and surveillance aircraft. The air operations which deployed over 75 precision-guided weapons were also supported with further onslaught from the naval forces attacking from the sea.

After a successful operation, the Petagon warned Iran not to attempt retaliation; and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, declares that “Our forces remain on high alert and are fully postured to respond to any Iranian retaliation or proxy attacks, which would be an incredibly poor choice. We will defend ourselves.”

Senior Pentagon officials declared in the briefing that the B-2 strike force achieved full objectives of the mission by inflicting extremely severe damage and destruction on Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities in one of the largest B-2 operational strike in U.S. history.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, said that the three nuclear sites in Iran got significant hits in the “highly classified mission with very few people in Washington knowing the timing or nature of this plan.”

In a briefing at the Pentagon Sunday morning, Gen. Dan Caine detailed how the strikes against the Iranian nuclear sites at Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan saw deployment of seven B-2 Spirit bombers that flew east from their base in MIssouri to Iran, requiring multiple in-flight refueling.

He said the bombers met up with U.S. fighter jets and support aircraft once over land in the Middle East in a “complex, tightly timed maneuver.”

With the B-2 bombers bearing massive 13,000 kilogramme bombs, the military needed to clear the airspace with smaller death mongers, including two dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles from the US submarine at site in Isfahan, and fighter jets cleared the airspace ahead of the bombers, checking for enemy aircraft and surface-to-air missiles.

At about 2:10 a.m. in Iran, the lead B-2 dropped two “bunker-buster” bombs known as the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators, or MOPs, on the site at Fordo.

Over the next 25 minutes, Caine said, a total of 14 MOPs would be dropped on two target areas. The Tomahawk missiles landed at Isfahan after bombs were dropped on the two other sites.

Caine said no shots were fired at the planes as they left Iranian airspace. “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,” Caine said.

“More than 125 U.S. aircraft participated in this mission,” Caine said, including the B-2 bombers, fighter jets, refueling planes and surveillance aircraft. More than 75 precision-guided weapons were used in the attack.

“Initial battle damage assessments indicate that all three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction,” Caine said, noting that a full assessment will take time.

The chairman warned Iran against taking any retaliatory action for the strikes.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called the attack “an incredible and overwhelming success.”

“The order we received from our commander in chief was focused, it was powerful, and it was clear,” Hegseth said at the briefing alongside Caine. “We devastated the Iranian nuclear program, but it’s worth noting that the operation did not target Iranian troops or the Iranian people.”

He added: “The operation President Trump planned was bold, and it was brilliant, showing the world that American deterrence is back. When this president speaks, the world should listen.”

“Our B-2s went in and out … and back without the world knowing at all,” Hegseth said. “In that way 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 Ordnance Penetrator.”

Mr. Trump announced the attack Saturday evening in a national address, saying that the sites “have been completely and totally obliterated.”

President Trump described the strikes as a “spectacular military success” and warned of “far greater” attacks if Iran does not “make peace.”

“If peace does not come quickly, we will go after those other targets with precision, speed and skill, most of them can be taken out in a matter of minutes,” he said.

“There’s no military in the world that could have done what we did tonight, not even close. There has never been a military that could do what took place just a little while ago,” President Trump declared.

The Oracle gathered that Fordo nuclear enrichment facility is a highly fortified underground uranium enrichment facility buried hundreds of metres deep in the mountains near Qom, in northwestern Iran. The site is designed to hold up to 2,976 spinning centrifuges, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Natanz is Iran’s largest enrichment complex, containing vast halls of centrifuges, some underground. It has been a key hub of Iran’s nuclear programme and the site of multiple past sabotage attempts – and was hit by Israeli strikes on the first wave of attacks on June 13.

Isfahan is an important nuclear research and production centre that includes a uranium conversion facility and fuel fabrication plants. It plays a critical role in preparing raw materials for enrichment and reactor use.

Iran stepped up enrichment after Trump walked out of the landmark 2015 nuclear deal – Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – in 2018.