2025 United States strikes on Iranian nuclear sites

Overview

On June 22, 2025, the United States Air Force and Navy attacked three nuclear facilities in Iran as part of the Twelve-Day War, under the code name Operation Midnight Hammer. The Fordow Uranium Enrichment Plant, the Natanz Nuclear Facility, and the Isfahan Nuclear Technology Center were targeted with fourteen GBU-57A/B MOP "bunker buster" bombs carried by B-2 Spirit stealth bombers, and Tomahawk missiles fired from a submarine. According to U.S. president Donald Trump, US F-35 and F-22 fighters also entered Iran's airspace to draw its surface-to-air missiles, but no launches were detected.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Significance

On June 22, 2025, U.S. Air Force and Navy forces struck three of Iran's primary nuclear facilities — Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan — under Operation Midnight Hammer during the Twelve-Day War. The operation targeted the core infrastructure of Iran's nuclear program, hitting an enrichment plant, a major nuclear facility, and a nuclear technology center in a single coordinated strike. The strikes represented a direct U.S. military intervention into the conflict, extending the war beyond the initial belligerents and marking a significant escalation. Whether the strikes achieved lasting damage to Iran's nuclear capabilities or altered the war's trajectory was not recorded at the time of this entry.

Tactics