Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on Sunday said it's "way too early" to assess whether Iran still has nuclear capability following strikes on three of its major nuclear facilities. He described the mission, Operation Midnight Hammer, as a "complex and high-risk mission carried out with exceptional skill and discipline by our joint force."
"This operation was designed to severely degrade Iran's nuclear weapons infrastructure," Caine told reporters at the Pentagon. "It was planned and executed across multiple domains and theaters, with coordination that reflects our ability to project power globally with speed and precision at the time and place of our nation's choosing."
He added that very few people knew the timing or the nature of the plan.
Outlining the mission, Caine said a large B-2 strike package launched from the U.S. at midnight Friday into Saturday morning Eastern time.
"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," said Caine. "The main strike package, comprised of seven B-2 Spirit bombers, each with two crew members, proceeded quietly to the east with minimal communications throughout the 18-hour flight into the target area."
Once over land, the B-2s linked up with escort and support aircraft in a "complex, tightly timed maneuver plan.
"At approximately 5 p.m.Eastern [Daylight] Time last night and just prior to the strike package entering Iran, a U.S. submarine in the Central Command area of responsibility launched more than two dozen Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles against key surface infrastructure targets at Isfahan," he said.
He added, "At approximately 6:40 p.m. Eastern [Daylight] Time, or 2:10 a.m. Iran time, the lead B-2 dropped two GBU 57 massive ordnance penetrator weapons on the first of several points at Fordo."
A total of 14 bunker buster bombs were dropped against two nuclear target areas, and all three Iranian targets were hit between 6:40 p.m. and 7:05 p.m. Eastern time, said Caine.
He added that the U.S. is not aware of any shots fired at its planes on the way out.
"Iran's fighters did not fly, and it appears that Iran's surface-to-air missile systems did not see us," he said. "Throughout the mission, we retained the element of surprise. "
He added that "initial battle damage assessments indicate that all three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.