Pentagon reveals new particulars about US strikes in opposition to Iran however leaves key questions unanswered

The Pentagon on Thursday launched new particulars about how the US ready for its marathon bombing mission in opposition to three Iranian nuclear websites, the crews that carried out the daring weekend raid, and the way Iran tried fortifying one of many websites that held essential points of its nuclear program.

In a morning briefing, which President Donald Trump had promised forward of time can be “attention-grabbing and irrefutable,” Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth mentioned the US undertook “essentially the most secret and most complicated army operation in historical past,” with out providing many specifics. It was Joint Chiefs of Employees Chairman Gen. Dan Caine who laid out compelling particulars on how the the extremely refined mission was performed.

The briefing, nonetheless, didn’t present new intelligence supporting the president’s assertion that the strikes “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program.

Caine revealed beforehand unpublicized particulars in regards to the bombing crew that took half within the mission, in addition to the in depth preparations undertaken for it throughout the army.

So many consultants labored on designing the bombs that hit their goal that they turned the “largest customers of supercomputer hours inside the US of America” at one level, he mentioned.

The crews who flew the 37-hour mission included each women and men and ranked from captain to colonel. They included lively responsibility members of the Air Power and members of the Missouri Air Nationwide Guard. Most had been graduates of the Air Power Weapons College – an elite academy within the Nevadan desert.

“When the crews went to work on Friday, they kissed their family members goodbye, not realizing when or in the event that they’d be dwelling,” Caine mentioned. “Late on Saturday night time, their households turned conscious of what was taking place.”

When the bombers returned to Missouri, the crews’ “households had been there, flags flying and tears flowing,” he added. “I’ve chills, actually speaking about this.”

Days earlier than the mission, Iran tried to fortify the Fordow nuclear facility, which is embedded deep in a mountain, by protecting with concrete the air flow shafts by which the American bombs would penetrate.

“I received’t share the precise dimensions of the concrete cap,” Caine mentioned. “However you must know that we all know what the size of these concrete caps had been. The planners needed to account for this. They accounted for every thing.”

Regardless of these wanted last-minute changes, Caine insisted the mission went as deliberate and that the large 30,000 pound bunker-buster bombs functioned “as designed” throughout their first makes use of in fight.

“We all know that the trailing jets noticed the primary weapons operate,” the final mentioned.

In the course of the briefing, Caine performed video that demonstrated how the large bombs are supposed to operate. The slow-motion video confirmed a bomb penetrating what gave the impression to be a sort of bunker. An orange glow emitted from an open passageway seen in conjunction with the power, adopted by a big fireball.

“After all, no one was down contained in the goal, so we don’t have video from the goal,” Caine mentioned.

About 44 troopers and two Patriot missile batteries had been tasked with defending a close-by base from potential Iranian retaliation.

Whereas the army officers supplied some new details about the planning of the strikes, they supplied no new proof of their effectiveness in opposition to Iran’s nuclear program. Each Caine and Hegseth referred questions on that to the intelligence businesses

The feedback from each Caine and Hegseth targeted on the Fordow nuclear facility. Two different services that had been focused, Natanz and Isfahan, went unmentioned.

The complete extent of injury on the services stays unclear. At Fordow, Hegseth famous that somebody would want “an enormous shovel” to completely assess the within of the power, including “nobody’s beneath there capable of assess” the harm. Caine mentioned the Joint Chiefs don’t do battlefield harm assessments “by design” and referred particular questions in regards to the extent of the strikes’ effectiveness to the US intelligence neighborhood.

“We don’t grade our personal homework,” the final mentioned. “The intelligence neighborhood does.”

An early evaluation from the Pentagon’s Protection Intelligence Company, reported on by CNN and quite a few different retailers, recommended the strikes didn’t destroy the core elements of Iran’s nuclear program and sure solely set it again by months. CIA Director John Ratcliffe later mentioned his company has discovered the services had been destroyed and “must be rebuilt over the course of years.”

The preliminary DIA evaluation, Hegseth famous, mentioned it might take weeks for a clearer image to emerge in regards to the efficacy of the strikes and their impression on Iran’s nuclear program. He mentioned it was a “traditionally profitable assault” however acknowledged assessments of that success stay in progress.

Hegseth continued to defend Trump’s declare the Iranian nuclear program was “obliterated,” sidestepping questions on how the president reached that conclusion simply hours after the bombs had been dropped.

“I can guarantee you, the chairman and his workers, the intelligence neighborhood, our workers and others, are doing all of the assessments essential to make it possible for mission was certainly profitable,” Hegseth mentioned.

Whereas Caine’s account of the mission supplied a number of the most concrete particulars the US has given in regards to the preparations to undertake the raid and included human parts that customized the bombing crews and different service members who participated, Hegseth took a extra pugilistic and political tone that criticized the media’s reporting on the aftermath of the mission.

It’s a well-recognized function for Hegseth, lengthy generally known as a vociferous defender of Trump on digicam.

On Thursday, it appeared his boss was watching: not lengthy after reporters raised questions on whether or not automobiles seen outdoors one of many services earlier than the assaults might sign Iran had preemptively moved enriched uranium from the location, Trump took to social media to downplay the concept.

“The vehicles and small vehicles on the web site had been these of concrete employees making an attempt to cowl up the highest of the shafts,” the president mentioned on Reality Social. “Nothing was taken out of facility.”

CNN’s Zachary Cohen, Haley Britzky and Natasha Bertrand contributed reporting.