The heroic pilots who helped drop the 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs on three of Iran’s nuclear facilities in a super-secret mission over the weekend were awed by the explosive power of the devices, according to the chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“We know that the trailing jets saw the first weapons function and the pilots stated, ‘This was the brightest explosion that I’ve ever seen. It literally looked like daylight,’” Lt. Gen. Dan Caine explained during a press briefing Thursday.
Caine also emphasized that the GBU-57 series MOP (Massive Ordnance Penetrator) heavy-duty bunker-busters don’t leave “impact” craters — shooting down skepticism that the mission wasn’t successful.
Satellite images released after the mission show six holes where the deep-diving bombs appeared to have penetrated the mountain above Iran’s Fordow nuclear plant.
During the press conference, which was seemingly intended to disabuse reporting on a leaked “low confidence” Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) assessment that Iran’s nuclear program may have only been set back months, Caine played jaw-dropping footage of a MOP attack.
“Unlike a normal surface bomb, you won’t see an impact crater, because they’re designed to deeply bury and then function,” Caine said.
“Five [weapons] were tasked to enter the main shaft moved down into the complex at greater than a thousand feet per second, and explode in the mission space,” he explained about the attack on Fordow.
The US military had specially developed the MOP to deal with the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant after learning about its construction nearly 15 years ago, Caine said. Prior to developing the 30,000-pound, heavy-duty bunker buster bombs, the military had assessed that it didn’t have a “weapon that could adequately strike and kill this target.”
“The crews that attacked Fordow were from the active duty Air Force and the Missouri Air National Guard,” the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said of the pilots.
“The crews ranked from captain to colonel, and most were graduates of the Air Force weapons school headquartered at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. I will state for the record that there is no beach volleyball or football at the Air Force weapons school,” he added, making a “Top Gun” reference.
Caine had a video call with the crews recently and noted that there were both men and women involved in the daring attack.
“This felt like the Super Bowl, the thousands of scientists, airmen and maintainers all coming together,” he remarked. “One last story about people. When the crews went to work on Friday, they kissed their loved ones goodbye, not knowing when or if they’d be home.”
“Late on Saturday night, their families became aware of what was happening, and on Sunday, when those jets returned … their families were there, flags flying and tears flowing. I have chills, literally talking about this.”
The country’s highest-ranking military officer underscored that “our forces remain on a high state of readiness in the region, prepared to defend themselves.”
“Our adversaries around the world should know that there are other DTRA [Defense Threat Reduction Agency] team members out there studying targets for the same amount of time, and we’ll continue to do so,” he said of the group that developed the MOPs to use against Fordow.
At one point during the briefing, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who raged press repeatedly, was pressed about why he congratulated the “boys” for the successful mission.
“I’m very proud of that female pilot, just like I’m very proud of those male pilots — and I don’t care if it’s a male or female in that cockpit, and the American people don’t care,” Hegseth clapped back. “We don’t play your little games.”
