Not Just B-2 And Tomahawk, US Secretly Deployed These 5 Weapons For Iran

Five weapons, apart from the Tomahawk cruise missiles and the GBU-57 bunker-buster bombs, no one knew about till now, were also deployed by the US for its mission to strike Iran's three nuclear sites - Fordow, Natanz and Eshafan.

The B-2 bombers carrying GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) flew from the Whiteman Air Force Base in the US. B-2s were joined by the linked-up escort and support aircraft once over land, and the US started deception and decoy tactics and used five weapons before GBUs were dropped. There was coordination at the finest level and minimal communication between bombers and escorts.

AGM-88E Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile (AARGM)

Suppressing the Iranian air defence was the first objective of the escorts to ensure enemy radars and Surface-to-Air missiles do not take down the B-2s that were largely undetected during the majority of their flight. These missiles were fired by US fighter jets to support the B-2s to ensure safety from ground engagement.

The US used the AGM-88E Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile to suppress the air defence. The air-to-ground missile's primary targets are relocatable air defence targets. The US did confirm use of decoys, deception and Suppression of Enemy Air Defence (SEAD), but not the weapon used.

The AGM-88E missile can travel speeds exceeding Mach 2. Apart from the F/A-18 Super Hornet, it is also compatible with the F-35A, F-16 and the EA-18 Growler, a variant of the F/A-18.

The strike package was supported by US Strategic Command, US Transportation Command, US Cyber Command, US Space Command, US Space Force and US European Command.

ADM-160 Miniature Air-Launched Decoy

The ADM-160 is a low-cost modular air-launched craft that duplicates the radar signature of the combat profiles of an American fighter aircraft and the allied combat fighters.

It is a flight vehicle that looks like a US aircraft on enemy radar and Integrated Air Defence Systems (IADS). According to the US Armament Foundation, ADM-160 protects valuable aircraft, and MALD offers counter-air operations to neutralise air defence systems that pose a threat to US and allied pilots. MALD-J is the jammer variant of the basic decoy, and the first ever stand-in jammer to enter production.

United States Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine, in the press briefing, had said, "Iran's fighters did not fly, and it appears that Iran's surface-to-air missile systems did not see us. Throughout the mission, we retained the element of surprise. In total, U.S. forces employed approximately 75 precision-guided weapons during this operation."

AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM)

Manufactured by Lockheed Martin, the AGM-158 is a stealth cruise missile kept as a backup weapon during the mission. The F-35s were armed with these because the main weapons were fired successfully.

They are used to take out high-value targets, well-defended areas, from a significant distance. Over 3,500 JASSM missiles have been delivered to date. Their warhead has a 1,000-pound blast fragmentation and a range of greater than 500 nautical miles (926 km).

AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW)

Developed by Raytheon, JSOW is a family of weapon systems with multiple variants. The weapon was jointly developed by the US Navy and Air Force to deploy a standardised medium-range glide weapon to take out targets from long distances outside the range of enemy air defence.

These weapons were on standby during the mission and were tasked to the Iranian airbase infrastructure in case enemy fighter jets were scrambled. The missile was not fired since the B-2 did not trigger a scramble of fighter jets.

E/A-18G GROWLER

The Growler is a variant of the F/A-18 Super Hornet with a sophisticated electronic warfare suite. The Growler is a carrier-based fighter aircraft that replaced the EA-6B Prowler. In this mission, the Growler carried out continuous jamming during its flight and sanitised the flight path of the B-2 bombers. It carried out Electronic Warfare missions to jam enemy radars and target Iran's command and control centre with its EW suite's capability.

The Growler holds the multi-role capability of the Super Hornet. They first went into production in 2004 and made their first flight in 2006.

It carries the AIM-120 air-to-air missile, AGM-88 High-speed Anti-Radiation Missile (HARM) that targets the enemy radar's electronic transmission by homing on it.

Operation Midnight Hammer

The main strike package had seven B-2 bombers with two crew members each aircraft. They took off from Whiteman and linked up with mid-air refuellers at checkpoints and flew east from Missouri toward Iran.

They linked up with the support package at the US Central Command (CENTCOM). The tightly timed manoeuvre required exact synchronisation across multiple platforms in a narrow piece of airspace, all done with minimal communications. The US also used the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning in the support package.

Just before the strike package entered Iran, a US submarine in the central command area of responsibility launched more than two dozen Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles against key surface infrastructure targets.

At approximately 6.40 pm Eastern Standard Time, 2.10 am Iran time, the lead B-2 dropped two GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) weapons on the first of several aim points at Fordow. The remaining bombers then hit their targets as well, with a total of 14 MOPs dropped against two nuclear target areas. All three Iranian nuclear infrastructure targets were struck between 6.40 pm and 7.05 pm Eastern Time.

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