Pentagon Details How US Bombed Iran’s Nuclear Sites

US Joint Chiefs Chairman General Dan Caine and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Sunday afternoon gave the full details and background on how American forces used decoys, stealth aircraft, and mega bunker buster bombs to attack three key Iranian nuclear facilities in just 25 minutes.

Hegseth said, "Iran's nuclear ambitions have been obliterated."

Caine explained that a larger number of aircraft than those which eventually struck Iran flew from Missouri in the direction of Iran initially, but that then the majority of the aircraft split to the West as a decoy.

He said the US used 75 precision-guided weapons throughout the operation.

Only seven B-2 bombers continued to proceed toward the Islamic Republic under virtual radio silence.

Other escort fighter aircraft coming from another direction linked up with the B-2 bombers before the B-2 bombers entered Iranian airspace.

The US deployed cyber, preemptive fire from fourth and fifth generation fighter jets and 24 tomahawk missiles from a nearby US submarine to distract Iran as the B-2 bombers proceeded toward the Fordow and Natanz nuclear facilities.

According to Hegseth, all of the precision munitions struck what they wanted to strike and they believe the strike achieved the destruction of the two facilities.

No Iranians were targeted, only the three nuclear sites, according to the US officials.

Hegseth added that the US has no interest in regime change, and would have preferred to have reached a new nuclear deal with Iran rather than to have had to attack.

However, Hegseth said that Trump determined that negotiations were stuck and that the Islamic Republic would not move far enough to end the threat of it obtaining a nuclear weapon.

He warned Iran against attacking US troops in the Middle East, lest the ayatollahs face an even greater American response.

Yet, if Iran does not attack American troops, he implied that American forces may have completed their intervention against Iran.

Despite Hegseth's retelling of Trump's decision-making process regarding Iran, as late as days before Israel struck Iran on June 13, sources have told the Jerusalem Post that Trump was still trying to get Jerusalem to back down.

But once Trump saw that Israel was being highly successful and had removed most of the air defense threat which might shoot down American aircraft, he shifted to being more ready to unleash American military force against Iran's nuclear sites.

Tomahawk missiles also hit the Isfahan nuclear facility.

Caine said that the battle assessment of damage to Fordow was still not final and was ongoing.

The impression was that there may not be an immediate final assessment even later Sunday or Monday.

Initially, around 1:45 a.m. Iran time, the B-2s dropped two 30,000 (MOAB) bombs, specifically its Massive Ordinance Penetrator (MOP) variant, on Fordow.

Later, another 14 MOPs were dropped on Natanz and Fordow.