Hegseth, joint chiefs say Iran never fired a shot at US bombers during nuclear sites strike
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, offered details on President Donald Trump's Operation Midnight Hammer, which targeted three Iranian nuclear facilities Sunday.
Caine said the operation took months and weeks of positioning and preparation to pull off, and he said the U.S. detected no shots fired at the aircraft involved in the strike both on the way in and on the way out.
"At midnight Friday into Saturday morning, a large B-2 strike package comprised of bombers launched from the continental United States," Caine said. "As part of the plan to maintain tactical surprise, 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."
Caine went on to detail the efforts to clear the airspace ahead of the bombers.
"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 said.
Posted by Anders Hagstrom
