WASHINGTON (BN24) — A U.S. official confirmed Saturday that B-2 Spirit stealth bombers were used in the U.S. airstrikes targeting Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, hours after President Donald Trump announced that the United States had struck three key sites in Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to Reuters, provided the first official acknowledgment that America’s most advanced long-range bombers were involved in the operation, which marked a sharp escalation in U.S. military involvement in the Israel-Iran conflict.
Earlier on Saturday, Reuters had reported movements of B-2 bombers, capable of deploying the 30,000-pound GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator, a bomb designed to reach and destroy fortified underground facilities — including the uranium enrichment plants buried deep within Iran’s mountainous terrain.
The Pentagon has not publicly confirmed the bombers’ participation or released details of the operation. However, military analysts had speculated that only U.S. B-2 bombers based in Missouri and occasionally forward-deployed to Guam or Diego Garcia are capable of executing a precision strike on deeply buried Iranian nuclear sites.
President Trump had stated earlier that all U.S. aircraft involved in the operation had successfully exited Iranian airspace and returned safely following the mission. The strike was described as “very successful,” with a “full payload” reportedly dropped on Fordow, the heavily protected underground facility.
The use of B-2s underscores the strategic nature and technical complexity of the airstrikes, which were intended to disable Iran’s nuclear capability while avoiding broad civilian casualties or nuclear fallout.
The confirmation follows a week of intensifying air warfare between Israel and Iran, with both sides exchanging missile and drone strikes, and escalating concerns that the U.S. military is now becoming deeply entangled in a potential regional war.
