The US military has carried out precision strikes against three facilities in Iran believed to be part of the country’s nuclear weapons development programme.
US President Donald Trump confirmed the action in the evening hours of 21 June Washington time, describing “massive precision strikes” on sites in Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan – which have for years been associated with Tehran’s effort at the enrichment of fissile nuclear material.
Speaking from the White House, and flanked by US vice-president JD Vance and secretary of state Marco Rubio and defense secretary Pete Hegseth, Trump described the operation as a “spectacular military success”.
“Our objective was the destruction of Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity, and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world’s number one state sponsor of terror,” the US president said.
“Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated,” Trump added.
The overnight air raid ended several weeks of uncertainty about whether Washington would join the campaign of direct attacks against Iran recently launched by Israel. The two countries have been in state of open, but limited war for over a year – trading long-range missile shots and air strikes.
The Pentagon’s top officer, US Air Force General Dan Caine, confirmed on 22 June the sortie was carried out by a flight of Northrop Grumman B-2 stealth bombers, backed up by Tomahawk missile strikes fired from naval ships.
Trump in his remarks confirmed that crewed aircraft were used, congratulating the “great American patriots who flew those magnificent machines”.
Open source reporting by the UK Defence Journal based on flight tracking data had indicated that a flight of B-2s, supported by tanker aircraft, had departed the main stealth bomber base at Whiteman AFB in Missouri on 21 June.
Notably, the group met up with tanker aircraft shortly after taking off according to flight tracking, indicating the bombers were heavily laden with ordnance and launched with a light fuel load in order to get airborne.
After tanking, flight tracking indicated the strike group headed west toward the Pacific Ocean. Ultimately inaccurate speculation among popular open source intelligence accounts on social media was that the flight was headed toward the UK-owned atoll of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean – home to a joint UK-US long-range bomber base.
The UK government on 22 June said it had not received a request to use Diego Garcia as part of the Iran strike mission, but that London was informed of the pending action by Washington in advance.
The westward move turned out to be a feint by the Pentagon, with Caine describing the Pacific flight as a decoy intended to misdirect the national governments, journalists, and hobbyists closely watching the US stealth bomber base.
However, the ruse was not entirely effective.
A social media user going by the name of David Shayani on X , who claims to be a Missouri resident, says he observed nine B-2s travelling eastward from his home in Warsaw, Missouri – some 50km south of Whiteman AFB. The claim could not be verified.
If true, the visible observation would be a notable breach of operational security, calling back to the infamous 2011 US commando raid into Abbottabad, Pakistan that killed terrorist organiser and al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden. During that operation, a local Abbottabad resident posted on Twitter (now X) describing what he called a rare instance of helicopters hovering over the city.
Despite the many prying eyes looking for the Iran strike group, the mission appears to have been accomplished smoothly.
Caine says the intercontinental sortie represents the largest B-2 strike in US history and the second-longest combat mission by the flying wing stealth bomber. The mission used 75 precision-guided weapons, including 14 of the ultra-heavy GBU-57 13,600kg (30,000lb) Massive Ordnance Penetrator bombs carried by the B-2s.
The Iranian strikes represent the first-ever operational use of those bunker-busting air-dropped weapons, according to Caine.
Notably, the flight of B-2s apparently encountered no resistance over Iran – a massive endorsement of the stealth technology featured on the B-2, which was designed more than 30-years ago.
”Iran’s fighters did not fly, and it appears that Iran’s surface-to-air missile systems did not see us throughout the mission,” Caine says. “We retained the element of surprise.”
This could also be due in part to the preceding weeks of bombing by Israeli air force Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth fighters, supported by Boeing F-15Is, which targeted Iran’s air defences and fighters on the ground. Video has emerged of the Israeli jets pummelling what appear to be Grumman F-14 Tomcats parked on the tarmac.
Iran is the last global operator of the iconic variable-wing interceptor, provided to the country by the USA prior to the Iran’s 1979 revolution that saw the current theocratic government come to power. Fleets data listed 41 F-14s in the Iranian air force inventory at the start of 2025, although these were in a dubious state of repair after decades of sanctions and export bans from the USA.
The country operates a mix of Western and Soviet-origin fighters, including McDonnell Douglas F-4s, Northrop F-5Es, Dassault Aviation Mirage F1s, Sukhoi Su-24s, and RAC MiG-29s.
Hegseth says the operation against Iran’s nuclear sites is not intended as a prelude to a larger military operation, such as an invasion or attempt at regime change.
Trump, who campaigned for his second term in the White House on a platform of ending US involvement in overseas conflicts, indicated he would like the US military to avoid further action in the Israel-Iran conflict.
“Hopefully, we will no longer need their services in this capacity. I hope that’s so,” Trump said.
However, Trump also left open the possibility that further strikes could come.
“Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace. If they do not, future attacks will be far greater and a lot easier,” the president said.
Washington has surged assets into the region over the past 10 days, including dozens of tanker aircraft and stealthy Lockheed Martin F-22 air superiority fighters.
For their part, the Islamic regime ruling Iran appear disinclined to take that off ramp.
Trump famously ordered the assassination of Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps General Qassem Soleimani in Iraq during his first term in office. Now with a second major blow dealt against Iran, the clerics ruling the Islamic Republic have vowed revenge.
Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi says Tehran has a legitimate right to respond to the US strikes, posting on social media that “Iran reserves all options to defend its sovereignty, interest, and people”.
Araghchi vowed there will be “everlasting consequences” to the US action.
Caine cautioned Tehran that any retaliation against US forces or installations would be “an incredibly poor choice”.
