The B-2 Spirit bombers, used by US for its Operation Midnight Hammer in Iran, returned to Whiteman Air Force Base in Knob Noster, Missouri, around noon on Sunday following a roughly 36-hour mission targeting nuclear sites in Iran.
Seven B-2s departed from Whiteman shortly after midnight on Saturday.
These seven B-2s were part of Operation Midnight Hammer, in which the US struck Iranian nuclear facilities in Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan amid Iran’s war with Israel. The B-2 attack was accompanied by a fleet of more than two dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles fired by US submarines against targets at the site in Isfahan, Iran’s largest nuclear complex.
Jerusalem has made Iranian nuclear facilities its top target for airstrikes. However, they could not strike Fordow, Iran’s main location for enriching uranium at 60%, as it is located deep inside a mountain.
That’s where the US came in. The US is the only country that possesses the B-2 bombers capable of hitting a target located as deep as Fordow. After the strike on Saturday, Trump claimed that all Iranian nuclear facilities were decimated by the American airstrikes. However, Tehran has disputed the claim.
The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dan Kaine, has said, “Initial battle damage assessments indicate that all three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction.” He noted that a full assessment will take time.
Caine added that there were no shots fired at American planes during the mission, “We are currently unaware of any shots fired at the US strike package on the way in.”