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← The June 22 Strikes

The B-2 Mission and the GBU-57: America's Part of Israel's War

Evidence rating: CONFIRMED. The aircraft, weapons, route and timing come from the Pentagon briefings of June 22 and June 26, 2025, and the Associated Press account of them.

Israel's air force flew over Iran for nine days before the United States joined. What America brought was one thing Israel does not have: a stealth bomber that can carry a 30,000-pound bomb halfway around the world. This page explains that mission in plain terms, because it is the moment American crews, American aircraft and American money became part of the war.

The mission, step by step​

  • Departure. Seven B-2 Spirit bombers left Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. One post quoting the Pentagon account says they "flew east for eighteen hours, refueling three times, in near total communications silence" (@shanaka86, March 1, 2026).
  • Deception. A decoy group of B-2s flew west over the Pacific, while the strike group flew east (Breaking Defense). The White House had said two days earlier that the President would decide "within the next two weeks," which the AP described as "ostensibly to allow additional time for negotiations, but in actuality masking the impending attack" (AP via PBS).
  • Support. "More than 125 aircraft" took part, including fighters, tankers and decoys, according to General Caine.
  • Opening shot. At about 5 p.m. Eastern, a US submarine launched more than two dozen Tomahawks at Isfahan.
  • The strike. "At 6:40 p.m. in Washington and 2:10 a.m. in Tehran, the first B-2 bomber dropped its pair of GBU-57 massive ordnance penetrators on the deeply buried Fordo uranium enrichment plant" (AP). The strike window was "6:40 p.m. to 7:05 p.m." (NYT).
  • Route. The Pentagon's own graphic showed the route crossing Lebanon, Syria and Iraq; the AP said "it was unclear whether those countries were notified."
  • Size. About "420,000 pounds of explosives." Caine: "This was the largest B-2 operational strike in U.S. history, and the second longest B-2 mission ever flown, exceeded only by those in the days following 9/11."

The weapon​

The GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator weighs 30,000 pounds. June 22 was its "first ever operational use." Fourteen were dropped. The weapon was developed under "a Special Access Program set up with the single mission of defeating hardened subterranean sites like Fordow" (post quoting the Pentagon account). Its story begins in 2009: see The Fifteen-Year Target.

A trailing pilot, as quoted by General Caine, called it "the brightest explosion I've ever seen" (@shanaka86, March 2, 2026).

Who knew​

  • Israel knew. "An Israeli official told me Israel was notified by the Trump administration in advance," reported Barak Ravid of Axios and Israel's Channel 12 (Ravid).
  • Congress mostly did not. "Most U.S. lawmakers were also kept in the dark," the AP reported, and Caine said only "an extremely small number of planners and key leaders" were told.
  • The American public found out from a social-media post. "Every American is discovering that the United States has struck Iran from a single social media post," one analyst wrote within the hour (S2 Underground).

"Probably not a one-and-done"​

The President's first post called for peace. But the same analyst noted that "if the hundreds of aircraft that have been moved into the CENTCOM theater" were any sign, "this is probably not a one-and-done" (S2 Underground, as preserved in the research captures). He was right: the United States and Israel went to war with Iran again in 2026. See After the Ceasefire.

The bill for the bombs​

A Pentagon reprogramming request dated August 1, 2025 asked to move about $123 million to replace the fourteen bunker-busters, and $498 million for THAAD interceptors fired to defend Israel (The War Zone). See The Bill for the Twelve Days.

Status: Dan Caine and Barak Ravid are alive, as far as these sources show.

Sources​

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

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