The Pentagon described Thursday how U.S. Army soldiers operating Patriot missile defense systems in Qatar stopped a retaliatory attack while B-2s piloted by warriors collaborating with experts delivered pinpoint strikes that punctured Iranian nuclear sites with bunker-busting bombs.
The purpose of the step-by-step press conference with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine was to denounce the skill and bravery that went into averting the 12 Day War between Israel and Iran, as well as to refute leaked reports about the damage estimates to Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
The most intricate and covert military operation in history was led by President Trump. Hegseth claimed that by choosing your word, Iran’s nuclear capabilities were destroyed and a ceasefire deal was reached, marking the end of the 12 Day War.
The B-2 Stealth Bombers not only narrowly missed their objectives, but they also safely exited Iranian airspace. However, Caine pointed out it was just one side of the tale.
An Iranian missile attack was thwarted Monday by air defenders at Qatar’s Al Udeid Air Base, who were manning two Patriot batteries built by Raytheon with about 44 American personnel still stationed there.
The 28-year-old captain was the oldest soldier. According to Cain, the youngest was a private, age 21, who had been in the military for less than two years. So, let’s take a moment to put ourselves out there. Consider yourself to be that youthful first lieutenant. You have been designated as the tactical director within the command and control element, and you are 25 or 26 years old. You alone are in charge of defending this base at that age.
The country’s senior military officer, Caine, then provided fresh information regarding the development of the bunker-buster bombs and how the United States used them to infiltrate the Iranian locations.
According to Caine, the GBU-57 A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator bombs were inspired by a confidential briefing from decades ago about what appeared to be a large construction project in Iran’s highlands.
That was the Fordo fuel enrichment plant, whose construction is thought to have begun in 2006. In 2009, the same year Tehran openly recognized its existence, it went into operation.
According to Caine, a Defense Threat Reduction Agency officer who saw the classified briefing in 2009 spent the next 15 years living and breathing Fordo with a colleague, studying the geology, construction dig, earth movement, and every piece of equipment entering and leaving the area.
They came to the conclusion that the United States lacked a bomb capable of destroying such installations. According to Caine, the Pentagon then went to work.
He claimed that we were secretly and covertly the largest consumers of supercomputer hours in the United States of America since so many Ph.D.s were working on the fake program, modeling and simulating.
Steel, explosive, and a fuse set to detonate at a certain time make up the 30,000-pound bomb. The weapon will penetrate farther before exploding if the fuse is longer.
According to Caine, the military has conducted hundreds of tests and retests on simulated facilities throughout the years. In the mock enrichment chambers, crews adjusted the bombs so that they would explode when they were ready to send a pressure blast through open tunnels to damage subterranean equipment.
According to Caine, the explosives were correctly constructed, tested, and loaded, then directed to their targets before detonating as intended.
According to Hegseth, Iran’s nuclear facilities have been destroyed.
The pilots who dropped the MOPs on Iran described the explosion as the brightest they had ever seen, adding that it “literally looked like daylight.”
The briefing demonstrated the rage released, showing a MOP moving deeper through the test facility, hitting a target in slow motion, and slicing through the arched interior of a second ventilation shaft without detonating.
