operation midnight hammer for 24 June 2025

Operation Midnight Hammer Latest News

The operation that the US launched on Iran was named Operation Midnight Hammer, the Pentagon announced recently.

About Operation Midnight Hammer

• It is the codename for a covert U.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.

Source: TOI