Washington, D.C. – June 22, 2025 — The United States has clarified that its recent military operation targeting Iranian nuclear facilities was not intended to topple the Iranian government. Instead, the Pentagon described it as a focused and limited strike designed to neutralize threats posed by Iran’s nuclear program.
“This mission was not and has not been about regime change,” said U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth during a press briefing. “The president authorized a precision operation to neutralize the threats to our national interests posed by the Iranian nuclear program.”
The operation, named “Operation Midnight Hammer,” was one of the largest and most secretive U.S. air campaigns in recent history. According to General Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the strike involved more than 125 military aircraft, including seven B-2 Spirit bombers that conducted an 18-hour round-trip mission from the United States.
The B-2s dropped 14 GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators—bunker-busting bombs—on three major Iranian nuclear sites: Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. The attack was coordinated with over two dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from a U.S. submarine targeting Isfahan.
Caine revealed that deception tactics, including decoys and airspace clearing by U.S. fighter jets, allowed the bombers to operate undetected. “Iran’s fighters did not fly, and it appears that Iran’s surface-to-air missile systems did not see us,” Caine said. “Throughout the mission, we retained the element of surprise.”
He added: “Initial battle damage assessments indicate that all three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction.”
The Pentagon confirmed the operation was kept under tight secrecy, with only a select group of personnel in Washington and at the U.S. military’s Middle East headquarters in Tampa, Florida, aware of the mission in advance.
Secretary Hegseth emphasized the limited nature of the strike. “As the president has directed and made clear, this is most certainly not open ended,” he said. “The operation did not target Iranian troops or the Iranian people.”
President Donald Trump, who announced the strikes on Saturday, described them as a “spectacular military success.” Speaking alongside Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Vice President JD Vance, Trump said, “The sites have been completely and totally obliterated.”
“If peace does not come quickly, we will go after those other targets with precision, speed and skill, most of them can be taken out in a matter of minutes,” the president warned. “There’s no military in the world that could have done what we did tonight, not even close.”
Iran has responded by launching a volley of missiles at Israel, wounding scores in Tel Aviv, but has so far refrained from escalating against U.S. forces or shipping routes in the Strait of Hormuz.
General Caine noted that U.S. troops in the region remain on high alert. “Our forces remain on high alert and are fully postured to respond to any Iranian retaliation or proxy attacks, which would be an incredibly poor choice,” he stated.
The strike marks a turning point in U.S. involvement in the broader Middle East conflict, directly aligning Washington with Israeli military efforts while trying to avoid further escalation.