Operation Midnight Hammer Successfully ‘Obliterated’ Iranian Nuclear Facilities, Hegseth Says at Sunday Press Briefing

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth held a press briefing with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine at the Pentagon early Sunday morning, detailing the U.S. military’s strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. 

“It was an incredible and overwhelming success,” Hegseth said at the Pentagon. “Iran’s nuclear ambitions have been obliterated.”

At President Donald Trump’s directive, the U.S. Central Command executed Operation Midnight Hammer, a precision strike on “three nuclear facilities in Iran Fordo, Natanz, and Isfahan” in the middle of last night. Hegseth said the mission was successful as the goal was “to destroy or severely degrade Iran’s nuclear program.”   

Hegseth attributed the successful mission to “President Trump’s bold and visionary leadership and his commitment to peace through strength.”

“Many presidents have dreamed of delivering the final blow to Iran’s nuclear program and none could … until President Trump,” Hegseth said. “The operation President Trump planned was bold, and it was brilliant, showing the world that American deterrence is back.” 

Hegseth also noted that Trump has said the U.S. “does not seek war.” 

“Let me be clear: We will act swiftly and decisively when our people, our partners, or our interests are threatened,” Hegseth said. “Iran should listen to the president of the United States and know that he means it. Every word.”

Hegseth described last night’s mission as “historic.” 

“Without the world knowing at all,” the U.S. Air Force’s B-2 Spirit Stealth Bombers traveled in and out of the nuclear sites, without a single shot fired at them. Last night’s strikes included “the longest B-2 Spirit Bomber mission since 2001” as well as the first time using a Massive Ordnance Penetrator, according to Hegseth. The MOP is a new “weapon system” made to destroy nuclear weapons situated in highly protected facilities, the Air Force states in its website. Twelve GPU-57 bunker-busters were used in the attack.

Caine explained the strikes in detail during the press briefing, stating that it “was a highly classified mission with very few people in Washington knowing the timing or nature of this plan.”

“At midnight Friday into Saturday morning, a large B-2 strike package comprised of bombers launched from the continental United States,” Caine explained. “As part of a plan to maintain tactical surprise, part of the package proceeded to the west and into the Pacific as a decoy.” 

Caine said the strike package consisted of seven B-2 Spirit Bombers, each containing two crew members who “quietly” moved to the east “with minimal communications.” 

“Throughout the 18-hour flight into the target area, the aircraft completed multiple in-flight refuelings,” Caine said. “Once over land, the B-2s linked up with escort and support aircraft in a complex, tightly timed maneuver requiring exact synchronization across multiple platforms in a narrow piece of airspace, all done with minimal communications.”

Just before the bombers entered Iran, a U.S. submarine launched over two dozen “Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles against key surface infrastructure targets at Isfahan,” Caine detailed. 

President of The Heritage Foundation Kevin Roberts supported Trump’s decision to have the U.S. military strike in Iran. 

“What follows must not culminate in another regime-change quagmire,” Roberts said in a Heritage press release early Sunday morning. “We learned that lesson in Iraq and President Trump was right to call out the failures of nation-building and military adventurism when running for president in 2016.”

Heritage Vice President for National Security Victoria Coates also supported the president’s decision.

“This is not a time for nation building or a broader conflict. Now that Iran’s self-defeating dreams of nuclear military power have been decimated, we are closer to peace,” Coates said in the press release.

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