Latest news with #B-2s
New York Post
12 hours ago
- Politics
- New York Post
Iranian construction crews working at Fordow nuclear site after US strikes, satellite images show
Iranian construction crews are busy at work on the surface of the uranium enrichment facility in Fordow five days after the US nailed the underground fortress with 30,000 pound bunker buster bombs, new satellite images showed. Crews operated excavators, bulldozers, and other construction vehicles near the craters and punctures in the ground above the nuclear facility caused by the GBU-57 bunker buster bombs dropped by American B-2s last weekend, according to images captured by Maxar Technologies on Friday. 4 Satellite images released Friday show a flurry of activity on the surface above Fordow's uranium enrichment facility where workers are beginning to build a new road. Satellite image ©2025 Maxar Technologies/AFP via Getty Images Advertisement Other images showed apparent construction crews building access roads to the facility and rebuilding the damaged dirt road that led to the bunker laboratory that was targeted by the US as part of Israel's conflict with the Islamic Republic. Satellite images from before the attack showed similar construction activity on the surface of Fordow in the 24-hour period prior to the bunker-busters piercing the desert surface. Those vehicles appeared to be moving unidentified contents out of the facility to a location roughly half-a-mile away. Advertisement 4 Heavy machinery is being used at the site where several 30,000 pound bombs were dropped last Saturday. Satellite image ©2025 Maxar Technologies/AFP via Getty Images Officials have stated that there has been no nuclear fallout or contamination as a result of the strikes. Fordow's centrifuges are currently 'no longer operational' according to the UN's nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency. 'It has suffered enormous damage,' IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi told Radio France Internationale on Thursday. Advertisement 'There is very, very, very considerable damage,' Grossi said. The extent of the destruction — and the amount of time the Iranian regime's program has been set back — have yet to be officially determined. 4 The United States started designing the GBU-57 bunker busters 15 years ago just to reach Iran's Fordow enrichment facility. Satellite image ©2025 Maxar Technologies/AFP via Getty Images President Trump has said the facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan have all been 'obliterated' and set back years — dismissing a leaked preliminary report from the Defense Intelligence Agency that suggested there was 'low confidence' the Iranian nuclear program had been set back by the massive strike. Advertisement Following that leak, CIA Director John Radcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard both backed up Trump and stated the strikes 'severely damaged' Iran's facilities. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth further pushed back against CNN and the New York Times for 'breathlessly' reporting the leaked preliminary 'low-confidence' assessment of the consequential strike. 4 Images released by the Pentagon showed the cavernous entry point of a bunker buster bomb on the surface of Fordow. Department of Defense Trump fumed about the leaks on social media, writing, 'The Fake News should fire everyone involved in this Witch Hunt, and apologize to our great warriors, and everyone else!' The Department of Justice is now seeking the origin of the leak and has promised to come down on the leaker with the full force of the law.
Business Insider
a day ago
- General
- Business Insider
Behind the scenes of a B-2 bomber strike: How crews prep for hard missions like 'Midnight Hammer'
Pilots and crews prepare for missions with complex practice and scenario planning. Crews have to work through what happens if their plan falls apart. For B-2 bombers, that means training for contingencies, learning how to manage fatigue, and simulating long flights. The bomber pilots who flew over Iranian airspace or whose aircraft served as decoys during this past weekend's Operation Midnight Hammer strikes on Iran's nuclear program didn't pull this complex mission off on the fly. It was a highly secretive and challenging mission that would have depended heavily on extensive planning and training. That the B-2s involved, per the Pentagon's account, dropped massive 15-ton bunker-busters one after another down an exhaust shaft at the Fordow nuclear site speaks to the precision required. Business Insider talked to retired US Air Force B-2 pilots about what it takes to prepare for difficult missions where stress and fatigue can easily take their toll on the bomber crews. Retired Air Force Colonel Brian "Jethro" Neal was one of two pilots to fly the longest-ever B-2 flight in 2001, just weeks after the 9/11 attacks. He and fellow pilot Melvin Deaile clocked in a 44-hour flight complete with over half a dozen aerial refuelings and a last-minute change of plans that sent them to drop more bombs. How do pilots and air support personnel prepare for such arduous missions? Neal said the key is constant practice and having a clear plan for when things go south. "No plan survives first contact with the enemy," Neal told BI, repeating a common phrase among US service members rooted in the writings of a 19th-century Prussian field marshal. It refers to the expectation of chaos with combat and the need to be ready when that moment comes. "So we have plans, we have back-ups to the plans, the plan B, and plan C," the former bomber pilot said. It takes a village His entire unit sprang into action upon learning B-2s would be deployed to fly bombing runs into Afghanistan. That meant groups of civilian government workers, pilots, aircraft maintainers, and airfield managers quickly gathering in planning groups and sharing intelligence to start deciding which targets would be struck and what it would take to achieve success. Northrop Grumman's B-2 Spirit bomber is a sophisticated $2 billion plane built to slip past enemy air defenses undetected and drop either conventional or nuclear payloads on an enemy. The aircraft is built to deliver tremendous devastation, and it takes a village to get just one of these aircraft in the air, Neal said. A bomber unit's mission planning process is painstakingly detailed and involves walking through numerous scenarios, identifying pitfalls or tricky enemy defenses to work around, and incorporating key intelligence assessments flowing from multiple avenues to pinpoint what the plan and contingencies should look like. While top brass and pilots are deep in staff planning, aircraft maintainers are getting planes ready and verifying with planners the right amount of fuel a bomber should carry and how much air should be in the tires. That corresponds directly with the payload size, which is mainly about the weight of the munitions on board. Meanwhile, the air control tower is working to make sure the stage is set for military aircraft take-offs and landings. They are "coordinating and orchestrating traffic in the air to make sure they're going the right way at the right time," Neal said. Neal recalled the munitions specialists who regularly inspected scores of Joint Direct Attack Munitions, unguided bombs fitted with a GPS-guidance kit. A B-2 carries anywhere between 16 to 80 of these weapons, depending on the munition's weight. Then there's the aircrew flight equipment team, the airmen who make sure that pilots have the right gear for the trip — different gloves depending on the season and environment pilots are heading to, helmets, oxygen systems, survival vests, and even the occasional sleeping cot, which Neal and his co-pilot used for their two-day journey. The same crew will also oversee preparations for worst-case scenarios, like making sure parachutes are ready to be used if needed, or that 9mm pistols are loaded and ready for the pilots to take, in case they are downed in enemy territory, a real possibility against adversaries with sophisticated surface-to-air missile systems. Battling fatigue Without Netflix or books readily available to pass the time, Neal said that he and his partner used some of their lengthy flight time to review rules of engagement. The team was briefed before departure, but the fast-moving mission left little time for rehearsals, leaving the two to make the most of in-flight downtime. A colleague had recommended the men pack baby wipes to help freshen up as they approached their target, an attempt to help their brains lock in amid flight fatigue. "That was just another human touchpoint to it of trying to stay in the game," Neal said. "Human factors" like sleep, fatigue, and morale can all affect wartime performance. "You get to the point where it's the most important part of the mission. And the frail human body is not designed to perform at its highest level under those conditions," he shared. After a tense 20 hours of flying with little sleep, the pair was "just trying to do whatever we could to stay at the top of our game." This isn't unfamiliar, though. B-2 pilots train for the exhaustion that comes with excruciatingly long flights. "It's part of your mission qualification to get certified to do combat missions in the B-2, to understand how to manage your time, whether that's a long duration sortie" or a simulator, Neal's partner Deaile explained. The pair even did 24-hour-long simulations to practice enduring such fatigue, trading off one pilot sleeping while the other piloted the simulator. Bomber pilots train for a wide range of scenarios and situations. Ideally, everything a pilot does in combat — whether it's special in-flight maneuvers like aerial refuels or dropping bombs — is something the pilot has already done dozens of times, Neal said. "I want to make sure that I've been out there on the dance floor doing that coordination on a regular basis so that it's second nature."
Roya News
a day ago
- Roya News
VIDEO: B-2 stealth bomber stranded in Hawaii after Iran decoy mission
A B-2 Spirit stealth bomber deployed in a deception operation meant to distract observers from a real strike on Iran was forced to make an emergency landing in Hawaii. The incident occurred during a complex mission on June 21, in which several B-2 bombers were seen flying west over the Pacific Ocean, closely trailed by a formation of aerial refueling tankers. While public trackers believed the aircraft were en route to Guam, this western maneuver turned out to be a strategic misdirection, an effort designed to exploit open-source intelligence watchers and obscure the actual strike package heading eastward across the Atlantic. One of the B-2s involved in the feint, operating under the callsign MYTEE 14, diverted to Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu, which shares space with Joint Base Pearl Harbor–Hickam. The aircraft is still on the ground, as shown in a video posted by David Martin (@Sir_DavidMartin), who captured the bomber parked on an apron with a security escort nearby. These unplanned diversions are not new for the B-2 fleet, which remains in service despite being costly, highly complex, and increasingly maintenance-intensive. In a similar case in 2023, another B-2 was stranded in Hawaii for an extended period following an emergency, which later coincided with a months-long grounding of the entire fleet after a crash at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. When asked about the bomber's diversion, Charles Hoffman, Chief of Media Operations for Air Force Global Strike Command, offered no specific details. 'We will not comment on movement, deployment or posturing of forces,' he stated. 'Air Force Global Strike Command maintains the capability to provide global strike anywhere, at the time of the President of the United States' choosing.' Currently, only 19 B-2s remain in active service, making them one of the US military's most limited and high-value platforms. Though infamously expensive and once criticized as a procurement disaster, the stealth bomber has since become a cornerstone of America's long-range strike capabilities. 'Nobody would argue 30 years later it wasn't an absolutely pivotal investment,' military analyst Tyler Rogoway wrote in a June 23 post. To extend the aircraft's viability, the Air Force has been upgrading the B-2 with modernized systems, cockpit enhancements, and efforts to reduce the operational costs of its sensitive radar-absorbent coatings. These upgrades aim to bridge the gap until the next-generation B-21 Raider becomes fully operational. The B-21, which is intended to eventually replace the B-2 fleet, is widely viewed as a critical program for the future of American airpower. Unlike its predecessor, the B-21 is reportedly on schedule and within budget, encouraging signs for a system expected to operate in larger numbers and with greater survivability in contested environments. As for the diverted B-2 in Honolulu, its current status remains unclear. Depending on the nature of the malfunction, repairs could take days, or much longer, due to the logistical challenges of servicing such a specialized aircraft so far from its home base.
News18
a day ago
- Politics
- News18
US Bunker Bombs Used To Strike Iran's Fordow Nuclear Site Took 15 Years To Develop
Last Updated: Caine described Operation Midnight Hammer as the result of 15 years of intense preparation 'Bunker bombs" used by the United States last week to strike Iran's Fordow nuclear fuel enrichment plant were under production for 15 years before the US even knew about the extent of the Tehran threat. The US struck three nuclear sites in Iran on June 21 using powerful bunker-busting bombs, marking the first use of weapon was used in combat for the first time. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Lt. Gen. Dan Caine has said that the heavy-duty bunker bombs used were designed specifically for the deeply buried site. Even though the US first learnt about the Fordow plant in 2009, it could not act due to the unavailability of a 'weapon that could adequately strike and kill this target," Caine said, the New York Post reported. This situation forced the US to produce 30,000-pound GBU-57 series MOP (Massive Ordnance Penetrator) bunker-buster bombs. The June 21 strike was meticulously crafted by the Pentagon to meet the precise demands of targeting Iran's Fordow facility. The operation focused on two key ventilation shafts intended to guide the bunker-busting bombs deep into the underground site. According to Caine, Iranian forces had tried to defend the shafts by sealing them with concrete. 'The mission planners had anticipated this scenario — they prepared for every detail," he said. 'The initial weapon forcibly removed the concrete covering, exposing the main shaft beneath." Caine described Operation Midnight Hammer as the result of 15 years of intense preparation — from the air and tanker crews to the weapons teams that designed and assembled the munitions, and the load crews who made the strike possible. All About GBU-57 – Bunker Bombs The GBU-57 — also named Massive Ordnance Penetrator — is designed to penetrate up to 200 feet (60 meters) underground before exploding. 'To defeat these deeply buried targets, these weapons need to be designed with rather thick casings of steel, hardened steel, to sort of punch through these layers of rock," said Masao Dahlgren, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington-based research center. The 6.6-meter-long GBU-57 also has a specialized fuse as 'you need an explosive that's not going to immediately explode under that much shock and pressure," Dahlgren said. The only aircraft capable of deploying the GBU-57 is the B-2 Spirit, a stealth bomber. The US employed seven B-2s in the Iran strikes — aircraft that can fly 6,000 nautical miles (9,600 kilometers) without refueling and which are designed to 'penetrate an enemy's most sophisticated defenses and threaten its most valued, and heavily defended, targets," according to the US military. 'This was the largest B-2 operational strike in US history and the second-longest B-2 mission ever flown," Caine said. Several B-2s proceeded west over the Pacific as a decoy while the bombers that would take part in the strikes headed east — a 'deception effort known only to an extremely small number of planners and key leaders," the general said. (with inputs from AFP)
Miami Herald
2 days ago
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Hegseth and Caine Delve Into Details but Not Results of Iranian Strikes
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, offered Thursday the Trump administration's most detailed descriptions yet of the planning and execution of U.S. airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. But Hegseth and Caine offered no new assessments of the state of Iran's nuclear program or the damage to the sites. Both men referred those questions to the nation's spy agencies. Neither man repeated President Donald Trump's assertion that the strikes had 'obliterated' the Iranian facilities, even as they pushed back against a preliminary classified Defense Intelligence Agency report that said the bombings set back the country's nuclear program by only a few months. Hegseth began what was only his second news conference at the Pentagon by saying that the news media, in his view, had not been kind to Trump. 'Searching for scandals, you miss historic moments like recruiting at the Pentagon, historic levels in the Army, the Air Force and the Navy.' Hegseth has fashioned himself as an amplifier of Trump, as part of his role as defense secretary. Caine played videos of the bombing attack on the nuclear sites and described how they were carried out. He steered clear of Hegseth's political points, and instead focused on the personnel who developed the 30,000-pound bombs that the B-2s dropped, the bomber crew members who flew the 37-hour-round-trip mission and the troops who defended a major American base from Iranian retaliation. Caine said only two Patriot missile defense batteries remained at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar when Iran retaliated for American strikes with a missile barrage Monday. The oldest American soldier on the base was a 28-year-old captain, he said, and the youngest was 21. He painted a portrait of tension on the base, in an almost lyrical way. 'At 7:30 p.m. in Qatar, as the sun sets in the west, Iran attacks,' he said. Asked later if he had been pressured to provide a rosy assessment of the mission, Caine, an F-16 pilot, said: 'No, I have not, and no, I would not.' This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Copyright 2025
