Seven B-2 Bombers Flew 37 Hours Around the World to Drop 14 Bombs on Iran: Details on the Operation

The U.S. Air Force has revealed new details regarding its first offensive operation against Iranian targets, Operation Midnight Hammer, which in the late hours of June 21 saw seven B-2 Spirit intercontinental range stealth bombers used to target the Fordow and Natanz nuclear facilities. B-2s took off from Whiteman Air Force Base with a flight plan that indicated Guam was their destination, fuelling speculation that the aircraft were intended to be forward deployed to be able to generation sorties against Iranian targets more quickly. This ruse appears to have been intended to reduce the possibility of Iran preparing its defences to intercept the targets. Elaborating on the operation, and the support which the B-2s received from other American assets, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Dan Caine reported: “As the Operation Midnight Hammer Strike package entered Iranian airspace, the U.S. employed several deception tactics, including decoys, as the fourth-and fifth-generation aircraft pushed out in front of the strike package at high altitude and high speed, sweeping in front of the package for enemy fighters and surface-to-air missile threats.”

Although the B-2 was designed with advanced stealth capabilities, the age of the aircraft, which first flew in 1989, has raised growing concerns regarding their vulnerability, particularly when operating against a highly sophisticated multi-layered air defence network. Should reports from Iranian sources regarding the successful shootdowns of four Israeli Air Force F-35s by air defence systems be accurate, this would have only further raised concerns. B-2s were thus supported by air defence suppression aircraft, with defence official informing the Air & Space Forces Magazine that anti-radiation missiles, including AGM-88 HARMs, were fired against Iranian air defence sites. These were likely launched from E/A-18G electronic attack jets and specially configured F-16s, with the F-35 having yet to receive its own anti-radiation missile class due to a number of delays. Although seven B-2 bombers were at the heart of the strike package, 125 U.S. aircraft were involved in total. While the B-2s could be launched from bases on the American mainland, making the timing of their attacks less predictable, other supporting assets such as fighter aircraft and tankers needed to be forward deployed to the region in the preceding weeks, with a major escalation in the American military presence having begun on June 13 after Israel initiated open hostilities with Iran.

Operation Midnight Hammer highlights the tremendous intercontinental reach of America’s small fleet of 18 B-2 bombers, with the aircraft pairing very high endurances and weapons carrying capacities with the stealth capabilities needed to retain a degree of survivability on penetration missions. Costing over $2 billion per aircraft to procure, the B-2’s costs were justified during the Cold War due to the need for a penetration bomber capable of penetrating Soviet air defences. Even 30 years later, Iran’s air defences are significantly less formidable than those deployed by the USSR, primarily due to the country’s lack of modern combat aircraft. It is notable that the U.S. Air Force plans to retire the B-2 without procuring a similarly long ranged successor, with the B-21 currently in a flight prototype stage to replace it being a significantly smaller aircraft with a much shorter range. Although the B-2’s capabilities are today unique, China is currently developing at least one class of similarly long ranged flying wing stealth bomber, with satellite images of the aircraft having first emerged in mid-June. Russia’s own intercontinental range stealth bomber program, the PAK DA, has continued to face serious delays, which have brought its future increasingly into question. Despite its unique capabilities, the B-2 has proven to be a highly problematic aircraft, with its extreme maintenance needs and fragile design having made by many accounts the most challenging aircraft in the world to operate, which was a major factor in the decision to cut procurements from 132 aircraft to just 20.