About Operation Midnight Hammer:
- It is the codename for a covert S.–led military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities carried out around midnight on June 21–22, 2025.
- It aimed to cripple Iran's nuclear program.
- The coordinated assault involved over 125 military aircraft, including B-2 stealth bombers, the deployment of 14 GBU-57 bunker-buster bombs, and more than 30 Tomahawk missiles launched from US submarines in the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea.
- This attack was the first time that the United States used its largest bunker-busting bomb, the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP), in an operational conflict.
- Targeted Sites:
- The operation targeted two uranium enrichment facilities at Fordow and Natanz and one facility at Isfahan, which conducts several activities related to Iran’s nuclear program.
- Natanz and Fordow are the only operational enrichment facilities in Iran.
- The US attacked Natanz and Fordow with B-2 bombers equipped with MOPs and only attacked Isfahan with Tomahawk cruise missiles.
- Why is Fordow so important?
- Located deep within a mountain 29 kilometers north of the Iranian city of Qom, the Fordow uranium enrichment facility stands as a highly protected and strategically central site within Iran’s nuclear program.
- Its subterranean placement provides significant protection against potential aerial bombardment, a design choice indicative of its critical role.
- The facility is approximately 54,000 square feet and is believed to house 3,000 centrifuges.
- Under the terms of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Iran was explicitly prohibited from conducting enrichment activities at Fordow.
- However, following the U.S. withdrawal from the agreement in 2018 during the first Trump administration, Iran resumed enrichment activities at the site.
