B-2 stealth bombers from Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, flew a 36-hour nonstop mission over the weekend and dropped bunker-buster bombs on an underground compound where commanders from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had gathered. Adm. Brad Cooper gave the order after intelligence indicated a nexus of senior IRGC leaders was meeting at the location.
The aircraft were carrying the 30,000-pound GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators, the bunker-buster weapon built to smash deeply fortified structures. The bombers covered roughly the same 7,000-mile route they flew for Operation Midnight Hammer last June, when the United States used the same type of mission against three of Iran’s nuclear installations.
The strike landed inside a broader U.S. assault on Iran that, by the six-week mark, Centcom said had hit more than 13,000 sites across the country. Other bombers in the American fleet, including the B-1 and B-52, have also played prominent roles in the campaign, but the B-2 remains the platform most closely associated with the deepest strikes.
Read Also: Weekend View Filmed Wednesday, The View Delays Bondi Talk Until April 13
The mission unfolded as U.S. forces were also searching for two American airmen who ejected from a fighter jet over Iranian territory on Friday. Trump said on Monday that hundreds of personnel were involved in the extraction effort, and he separately described possible attacks on Iranian infrastructure.
That leaves the White House pressing two tracks at once: a covert-style strike package aimed at Iran’s military leadership and a rescue operation for downed airmen. Trump sharpened the pressure the following day on Truth Social, threatening to eradicate Iranian civilization if Tehran did not capitulate to his demands by 8 p.m. ET on Tuesday. Karoline Leavitt said only the president knows where things stand and what he will do.
Read Also: Trump Tweet Today: Trump's Iran threat sparks sarcastic embassy backlash
Trump also cast the overnight movement of the bombers in cinematic terms, saying it was the kind of deployment you would call central casting if it were being done for a movie, and he later said the pilots came in so fast and so quick and got out of there. The next step now is whether the strike and the threat prompt Tehran to move, absorb the blow, or answer in kind.
