The Trump regime has claimed that during ‘Operation Midnight Hammer’ seven B-2 bombers flew from Whitman AFB in Missouri to Iran, where they dropped 14 MOPs on the Fordo and Natanz nuclear sites in Iran. If that was actually the case, there should be 14 bomb craters. However, in the post operation satellite images, I can count only seven craters.
Satellite photos before and after the attack show six bomb craters at Fordo and just one crater at Natanz. By my math 6+1=7, which is the number of B-2 bombers we are told flew this mission. So what gives? Either the marksmanship was uncanny — and each of the 7 target points resulted in a “Robin Hood” with two bombs precisely hitting each target — with those bomb hitting exactly one atop the other. JDAM bombs like these MOPs with GPS guidance are reported to have 95% target accuracy and precision on the order of 10m or 33 feet. If 12 MOPs were dropped on Fordo, they were incredibly lucky to double tap all of them, or someone isn’t being truthful about the bomb count.
Single bomb crater at Natanz following ‘Operation Midnight Hammer’
I suppose that that the first bomb if laser guided could hit its mark. But once that bomb detonated, it seems unlikely that the second bomb could be similarly guided through the blast debris. Perhaps these bombs have ultra high precision GPS guidance — or the Airforce has cloned Luke Skywalker, you tell me.
A “Robin Hood” in target archery is a rare accomplishment, where one arrow in the bullseye is directly struck by a second arrow in the bullseye.
I cannot fathom why Trump would claim 14 MOPs were used in this operation, when it appears that it was really just seven, but then again Trump isn’t exactly famous for his truthfulness or honesty.
On Thursday morning June 26th Secretary Hegseth and Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Cane gave a detailed press conference detailing mission specifics related to the MOPs strikes at Fordo. They clarified that 12 MOPs were used at two locations — aimed at 3 pronged ventilation shafts leading to the underground centrifuges. The first MOP was used to destroy a concrete cover shielding the shafts and subsequently 5 additional MOPs were sent down the main central ventilation shafts, one after the next, with the intent of burrowing down and sending blast overpressure into the centrifuge rooms. Secretary Hegseth reported that the craters on either side of the main shaft were secondary features not caused by direct MOP impacts. This reporting suggests a remarkable precision and accuracy for these weapons — 5 Robin Hoods in a row, twice! — in weapon previously reported to be accurate within ‘a few meters’ — +/-16 feet.
Based on this reporting, it appears reasonable to conclude that the buried features at Fordo may have been severely damaged — time will tell.
The U.S. stockpile of GBU-57 bombs is thought of have included only 20 of these remarkable weapons. Having used 2/3s of them (14) during Operation Midnight Hammer, we can only hope they were effective and the mission’s goals were completely accomplished, since any follow-up mission would completely deplete the remaining weapons and leave the U.S. with few follow-up options. Trump said he was open to another bombing raid on Iran’s nuclear facilities — (if it was necessary!?), but that seems like a hollow threat given the short supply of bunker busters.
Questions remain about the disposition of the 408.2Kg of 60% enriched Uranium that the Iranians may have moved from the facilities attacked by Operation Midnight Hammer. If Iran possesses just a few dozen centrifuges hidden in some unknown location (or deeply buried at Isfahan where they are unreachable by bombing), they could still process their existing enriched Uranium to bomb grade material in just a few months. www.nbcnews.com/...
