From Trump's feint to decoy bombers…Web of deception that kept Midnight Hammer blitz secret so Iran didn't fire ONE shot
DECOY and deception and were at the heart of the US's Operation Midnight Hammer against Iran's nuclear sites.
Through meticulous planning and artful bluff, the stealth bomber squadron
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A B-2 spirit bomber refuelling mid-air - as the Operation Midnight Hammer planes did
Credit: AFP
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Trump threw the world off the scent with a series of bluffs
Credit: Getty
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Satellite pictures show the Fordow nuclear plant before and after the US strikes, on June 20 and June 22
Credit: Reuters
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The US began spinning a web of deception at the start of
Trump's public statements were curated to keep the regime and the rest of the world guessing about whether the US would collaborate in
strikes
.
On Wednesday, the President maintained the smoke-and-mirrors, telling reporters at a flagpole opening ceremony: "I may do it, I may not do it. Nobody knows what I'm gonna do."
The masterstroke came on Thursday when the White House tossed out a "two-week"
deadline
for
read more on the operation
This was widely interpreted as kicking the can down the road - and Trump has been
We now know that, as this was announced,
Israel stuck to
the script
, evening
and vowing to strike Fordow without the US support they must have known was coming.
Government sources leaked to
Most read in The US Sun
This too appears to have been a ruse to lull
Iran
into a false sense of security.
As the operation kicked off at midnight on Friday night, the misdirection continued.
The Sun reports from inside as Israel as tensions flare following US air strikes
A decoy fleet of B-2s flew west over over the Pacific and towards Guam.
Their only purpose was to throw intelligence off the scent of the actual operative fleet - which at the same moment was gliding quietly east, bound for Iran.
Only "an extremely small number of planners and key leaders" knew the truth, General Caine said.
The strike group consisted of seven B-2 bombers each loaded with two of the 14-ton "bunker-buster" bombs.
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A B-2 bomber returns to the Whiteman air base in Missouri after completing the mission
Credit: Reuters
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US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth revealed details about the operation after it had completed
Credit: Getty
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The round trip was 37 hours, so an armada of more than 100 support aircraft was needed to help them refuel on the wing.
Strict instructions were issued to keep communications to a minimum to avoid detection.
Then at half past midnight Iranian time, a US submarine launched more than two dozen Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles at the Isfahan nuclear site in east Iran.
An hour later, the bomber squadron entered Iranian airspace - still undetected, but in perilous enemy territory.
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Two dozen tomahawk missiles were launched from US submarines during the air-and-sea operation
Credit: AP
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Damage in the Ramat Aviv neighbourhood of Tel Aviv after Iran hit back following the US strikes
Credit: Getty
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Iranian missiles being intercepted over Israel the morning after Midnight Hammer
Credit: Reuters
More decoy and scout planes swooped out ahead of the main unit to distract any awaiting Iranian defence jets - but they encountered none.
The escort group stood ready to launch preemptive fire on any surface-to-air missiles or jets, but not a single shot was fired at the operatives.
The first bombs dropped at 2:10am Iranian time - the darkest hour of the night - and 25 minutes later it was all over.
Officials revealed that around 75 precision-guided weapons were unleashed in total, with 14 of the "bunker-busters" dropped on Fordow.
The B-2s were programmed to drop one bomb first, followed by another shortly afterwards onto the exact same impact site. point of impact.
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