America’s military dropped 75 precision-guided weapons on Iran’s nuclear facilities early Sunday morning in what Defense Secretary Hegseth is calling a flawless operation that took “months and weeks” of preparation in anticipation of President Trump’s call. 

American pilots pounded three Iranian nuclear sites — Isfahan, Natanz, and Fordow — with 14 30,000-pound GBU-57 massive ordnance penetrators, better known as bunker busters, in what was the first operational use of this weapon. In a Sunday morning press conference, Mr Hegseth says it was the longest stealth bomber mission since 2001.

Run by Centcom Commander Eric Kurilla, seven B2 stealth bombers took 18-hour flights with several in-flight refuelings. More than 125 American aircraft participated in the mission, dubbed “Operation Midnight Hammer,” according to chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, including intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft and a guided missile submarine that launched two dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles against surface infrastructure targets at Isfahan.

Using decoys, deceptive routing, and tightly timed maneuvers with minimal communications, the mission proceeded without any shots fired by Iran’s surface-to-air missile system or fighter jets, General Caine said. 

“Final battle damage will take some time,” he added, but initial battle damage assessments from Operation Midnight Hammer “indicate that all three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction.” 

The highly classified mission — conducted with the knowledge of few people in Washington — was focused solely on debilitating Iran’s nuclear program. No civilians or military troops were targeted, Mr. Hegseth said. 

“We devastated the Iranian nuclear program,” Mr. Hegseth said. “Many presidents have dreamed of delivering the final blow to Iran’s nuclear program and none could until President Trump.”

Mr. Hegseth added that Mr. Trump “seeks peace through strength,” however, any “attempts at retaliation will be met with far greater force.” 

President Trump’s decision to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities comes after more than a week of debilitating strikes by Israel on Iran’s nuclear programs. Despite a surprise offensive that damaged Natanz and Isfahan, Israel did not have the capacity to penetrate the crown jewel of Iran’s nuclear program, Fordow, which is buried 300 feet deep in a mountain. The bunker buster is the sole weapon with the ability to take out an underground facility. 

After the strikes, Mr. Trump said that additional American strikes are not off the table, but “now is the time for peace.”

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, praised the president and American military for the strikes, as did several American lawmakers from the president’s party. However, several other lawmakers condemned the actions, including Congressmen Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna, who had introduced legislation seeking to limit the president’s authority to use force.  

“When two countries are bombing each other daily in a hot war, and a third country joins the bombing, that’s an act of war. I’m amazed at the mental gymnastics being undertaken by neocons in D.C. (and their social media bots) to say we aren’t at war… so they can make war,” Mr. Massie wrote on X.

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, speaking from Turkey, called the attack an “act of aggression” that will be met with “dangerous consequences and far-reaching implications.” He dismissed the chances of diplomacy” and said America had crossed “a very big red line.”

Iran “reserves its right to resist with full force against U.S. military aggression and the crimes committed by this rogue regime, and to defend Iran’s security and national interests,” Iran’s foreign ministry said in a statement. “Now, by completing the chain of violations and crimes committed by the Zionist regime, the U.S. has itself launched a dangerous war against Iran.”