June 22, 2025 · Central Iran (Qom Province) Theater

The centerpiece of Operation Midnight Hammer. US B-2 Spirit stealth bombers, flying from Diego Garcia after multiple aerial refueling contacts, dropped GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrators — 30,000-lb bunker-buster bombs — on Iran's most fortified nuclear facility. Fordow was built inside a mountain near Qom, 80–90 meters beneath solid rock, specifically to survive conventional air attack. The MOP had been developed precisely for this scenario. Multiple bombs were required to breach successive layers. Iranian air defenses fired SA-20 batteries but failed to detect the B-2s until impact.

June 22, 2025 · Central Iran (Isfahan Province) Theater

Natanz — the birthplace of Iran's enrichment program — was targeted simultaneously with Fordow using a combination of B-52H-launched cruise missiles, F-15E precision-guided munitions, and Tomahawk strikes from US Navy ships in the Persian Gulf. The complex included the Fuel Enrichment Plant and the Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant. Above-ground facilities were destroyed in the first minutes of the strike; attacks on buried halls continued for thirty minutes. A Saberian previously identified as the underground centrifuge hall was specifically targeted.

June 22, 2025 · Central Iran (Isfahan Province) Theater

The Isfahan Nuclear Technology Center — a sprawling complex housing uranium conversion facilities, laser enrichment research, and nuclear engineering institutes — was struck in the third phase of Operation Midnight Hammer. The strikes were designed to eliminate Iran's capacity to reconstitute its enrichment program quickly. Isfahan's conversion facility transformed uranium ore into the feedstock for centrifuges; without it, even surviving centrifuge halls could not function. Surface-to-air missile systems at Isfahan were suppressed by US electronic warfare.

June 22–24, 2025 · Persian Gulf / Middle East Theater

Within hours of the US strikes, Iran launched waves of ballistic missiles and Shahed drones against US military installations in Iraq (Ain al-Assad, Erbil), Qatar (Al Udeid Air Base), and the UAE (Al Dhafra Air Base). The attacks echoed Iran's calibrated January 2020 retaliation for Soleimani's killing — designed to demonstrate capability and satisfy domestic audiences without triggering a full US counteroffensive. US Patriot and THAAD batteries intercepted the majority of incoming missiles. Two US service members were killed; approximately 40 were wounded.