U.S. Secretary of War Hegseth Highlights B-2 Bombers Strike on Iran Demonstrating U.S. Long-Range Airpower.

The U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has highlighted the U.S. Air Force B-2 Spirit bombers' role in Operation Midnight Hammer, describing how stealth bombers flew from the American heartland to attack Iranian nuclear infrastructure halfway around the world. His remarks emphasized the aircraft’s long-range combat reach and its role in delivering specialized penetrating weapons. The U.S. Air Force identified the operation as the largest B-2 operational strike in American history.

A U.S. Air Force B-2 Spirit is prepared at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, in June 2025 ahead of Operation Midnight Hammer, which demonstrated U.S. long-range strike capability against Iran’s nuclear facilities. (Picture source: U.S. Department of War/Defense)

Key Tactical Insights:

• U.S. Air Force B-2 Bomber employment: Seven B-2s flew from the continental United States against Iranian nuclear targets, combining long-range flight, aerial refueling, and reduced detectability.

• Underground-target weapon against Iranian nuclear sites: The bombers delivered GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators against Fordow and Natanz, while submarine-launched Tomahawk missiles attacked Isfahan.

• Supporting force: The U.S. operation depended on coordinated tankers, combat aircraft, and deception measures. International comparisons must consider those resources alongside bomber performance and weapons effects.

Speaking during a Pentagon press briefing on November 10, 2026, U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth characterized Midnight Hammer as flawless and reiterated the administration’s claim that the targeted nuclear sites had been obliterated. His remarks revisited the earlier operation rather than announcing a new strike. The claim of complete destruction remains an official assessment that should be distinguished from independently verified findings about underground damage.

The B-2 mission and its combat capabilities

The attack occurred on June 21, 2025, U.S. time, corresponding to early June 22 in Iran. Seven U.S. Air Force B-2 Spirit bombers formed the main strike package, flying east from the United States with minimal communications. They conducted multiple aerial refuelings during an approximately 18-hour outbound flight before joining escort and supporting aircraft. A separate bomber element flew west over the Pacific as part of a deception effort intended to preserve operational surprise.

Personnel from the 509th and 131st Bomb Wings at Whiteman U.S. Air Force Base, Missouri, supported the operation. The mission continued an established pattern of B-2 combat employment: the aircraft had previously flown from Missouri against targets in Serbia and Afghanistan. Midnight Hammer paired that intercontinental reach with the combat introduction of a specialized weapon for deeply buried targets.

The B-2’s military value lies in combining reduced detectability, long range, and heavy weapons carriage. These characteristics give commanders an option for missions requiring an aircraft to approach protected targets and release large penetrating weapons. Reduced detectability does not make the bomber invulnerable. Midnight Hammer’s use of escorts, deception and synchronized support illustrates the broader measures employed to manage operational risk.

The GBU-57 bomb and its role against buried facilities

The B-2 force delivered 14 GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators against Fordow and Natanz, marking the weapon’s first combat employment. Isfahan was attacked separately with more than two dozen submarine-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles. Hegseth’s reference to the three nuclear sites therefore described the combined operation, while the bombers’ specific contribution centered on the penetrating-bomb attacks.

The Boeing-built GBU-57 is a GPS-guided weapon weighing approximately 30,000 pounds, or 13.6 metric tons. Designed for hardened and deeply buried targets, it uses its substantial mass and construction to penetrate protective material before detonation. Its total weight far exceeds its explosive content: Air & Space Forces Magazine lists a high-explosive warhead weighing approximately 5,740 pounds.

The weapon addresses the challenge of producing destructive effects beneath protective material. Its employment does not, by itself, establish the destruction of every underground chamber. In September 2025, the International Atomic Energy Agency assessed that Fordow was expected to have suffered very significant damage, based on satellite imagery, while reporting that operating conditions and the status of nuclear material there were unknown to the agency. That assessment predates Hegseth’s latest briefing and does not establish the facility’s condition in November 2026.

U.S. mission capacity and international comparisons

Midnight Hammer depended on an extensive force beyond the seven bombers. The Pentagon described an operation involving more than 125 aircraft, with aerial refueling, fighter support, deception, and submarine-launched weapons integrated into a coordinated attack. The demonstrated U.S. capability was both technological and organizational: preparing aircraft and weapons, sustaining the deployment and synchronizing different forces across considerable distances.

Other countries have demonstrated important elements of long-range strike capacity. France conducted Operation Hamilton on April 14, 2018, as part of the coordinated French, British and American strikes against Syrian chemical-weapons-related facilities. French parliamentary testimony confirms an approximately ten-hour mission from metropolitan France and back, employing SCALP cruise missiles. French military accounts describe Rafale strike aircraft supported by tankers and Mirage 2000-5 fighters. The operation demonstrated demanding long-distance mission planning, although its weapons and target requirements differed from Midnight Hammer.

Britain’s Operation Black Buck provides a historical example of the supporting effort required. The first mission departed Ascension Island on April 30, 1982, and attacked Port Stanley airfield on May 1 during the Falklands conflict. According to the Royal Air Force, the round trip covered almost 6,600 nautical miles and lasted approximately 16 hours, enabled by an extensive Victor tanker operation. This mission launched from a forward island base rather than striking directly from Britain, and it does not establish a present-day equivalent to the B-2 and GBU-57 combination.

Russia demonstrated another approach on November 17, 2015, when Tu-160 and Tu-95MS strategic bombers launched cruise missiles against targets in Syria. Contemporary reporting and subsequent research documented their combat employment from Russian territory. These missions demonstrated long-range missile delivery, but required different target-access capabilities than flying a stealth bomber into defended airspace to release penetrating bombs.

China’s capabilities should be considered separately from those combat examples. U.S. Strategic Command’s 2026 congressional posture statement identifies the H-6N as an operationally fielded, aerial-refuelable bomber and describes the H-20 strategic stealth bomber as under development. These are relevant indicators of China’s long-range aviation capacity, but they do not establish a demonstrated combat mission equivalent to Midnight Hammer.

Several countries can therefore prepare complex distant combat missions. Achieving effects comparable to Midnight Hammer would depend on the target’s protection, available weapons, defenses, basing and overflight access, intelligence, and tanker support. The operation provides a documented example of integrated U.S. Air Force strike capability, while other forces may pursue particular objectives through different combinations of aircraft, missiles and supporting assets.

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Written by Alain Servaes – Chief Editor, Army Recognition Group
Alain Servaes is a former infantry non-commissioned officer and the founder of Army Recognition. With over 20 years in defense journalism, he provides expert analysis on military equipment, NATO operations, and the global defense industry.