The United States had already used them during the wars in Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Libya, but never before had such a high-profile mission been so discreet. B-2 Spirit bombers are in the news after the recent airstrikes in Iran, which targeted the highly fortified underground nuclear sites of Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan.
During this military operation, dubbed "Midnight Hammer," the United States carried out a mission that had been in preparation for years, using state-of-the-art stealth aircraft, introduced in the late 1980s and boasting formidable effectiveness. Called the B-2 and developed by Northrop, it costs more than $2 billion each due to its equipment. The paint alone, which absorbs radar waves, costs $400,000 per liter.
The only contenders to transport the GBU-57 missile, 6 meters long and weighing over 13 tons, the B-2s in Spirit configuration were used during the operation and flew no less than 37 hours in total, without ever landing and without being detected during their mission. They made the round trip from their base in Whiteman, Missouri, United States.
When you consider that a commercial flight can last up to 19 hours, you can imagine that the military is pushing this kind of limit, and reaching new heights. But how did a total of 7 bomber planes manage to make a round trip from the United States to Iran, carrying a payload of several tons, without having to land and without being detected once?
Why American B-2 bombers flew for 37 hours
To understand how the stealth aircraft covered more than 23,000 kilometers without To pose, we must first understand why they had no choice but to stay in the air. There are two main reasons: a weight constraint and a stealth constraint.
A Weight Constraint
When they took off from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, the bombers involved in the Iranian airstrikes had their fuel tanks practically empty. A surprising choice, before embarking on a flight of nearly two days without a break. The 45-ton fuel tanks available only had enough to take off and reach cruising altitude. A sine qua non condition, the B-2 bomber equipped with more than 13 tons of weapons simply would not have been able to take off.
By refueling on the ground, and carrying two GBU-57 bombs in their hold, the B-2s would be far too heavy to break away from the ground and have sufficient lift under their 52-meter wingspan. If they had to carry out several takeoffs and landings, the stealth aircraft would therefore have to be permanently accompanied by tanker aircraft to refuel their tanks once in the air, after takeoff.
A constraint of discretion
With its architecture worthy of the best stealth aircraft, the B-2 bomber is practically undetectable by radar, thanks to its wingspan which deflects and absorbs radio waves. But to remain discreet, it is still necessary to operate at high altitude, and plot a very direct trajectory, without wasting any time. Thus, to transport the planes from the United States to Iran, there was no question of pausing.
Despite the capability of the GBU-57 missiles, such an aerial operation can only be effective if it is accompanied by a surprise effect. And it's difficult to surprise when you take off more than 10 hours earlier. During their 11,400-kilometer crossing towards Iran, the B-2 bombers operated at high altitude, at 15 kilometers (50,000 feet).
This altitude is much higher than that of airliners, which range between 30,000 and 41,000 feet. At such a level, the B-2 bombers can operate at particularly high speeds – even subsonic ones – with controlled fuel consumption. This allowed the B2 bombers to fly at up to Mach 0.95, close to the speed of sound, at an altitude of 50,000 feet. This allowed them to cover the greatest distance in the shortest possible time.
37 hours without interruption or detection: a technological challenge
Now that we understand why Operation Midnight Hammer required flying continuously for 37 hours without being detected, let's look at the means used to achieve this. Although the United States has already carried out a mission in Afghanistan for a total of 44 hours from the departure and arrival of Whiteman in Missouri, the air strikes on Iranian nuclear sites are particularly impressive due to the resources deployed.
Unlike previous strikes with B-2 bombers, those of June 21 and 22, 2025, had the particularity of being closely monitored by the media, air traffic monitoring platforms via ADS-B receivers. Radio reception of conversations between planes and controllers also allows many enthusiasts to follow air traffic, just as social platforms allow information to be shared in no time, at the risk of betraying the discretion of military operations like this one.
Diversion
In the United States in particular, many Internet users were closely watching the skies, on the lookout to share any activity at the Whiteman base in Missouri. Fully aware of this constraint, the US Air Force took care to send 11 bombers off the base. Two of them headed west, towards the Pacific Ocean. Their mission: to Andersen Air Force Base, located on the island of Guam, off the coast of the Philippines.
This was actually a diversion. One of the two aircraft was even directed towards Hawaii. On radar, the bombers were not very discreet, sharing the callsigns MYTEE 11 and MYTEE 21, as well as their destination, the Pacific island. At the same time, the main mission with nine B-2 bombers was being set up, heading east towards the Atlantic Ocean. Unlike the other aircraft, the convoy of nine aircraft remained completely silent.
Of the nine aircraft, two served as backup aircraft in case of need. They were not involved in the airstrikes in Iran, US authorities later clarified. The other seven bombers involved had two crew members on board. The rare information on the squadron of aircraft concerns Internet users on X, located near Whiteman Air Force, who indicated that the bombers were heading east in the early morning of June 21.
Refueling over the Atlantic
Between June 15 and 16, military air activity accelerated over the Atlantic, with numerous US Air Force KC-135 and KC-46 tanker aircraft. The latter then positioned themselves at bases in Germany (Ramstein), in Moron and Rota in Spain, but also in Lajes, on the island of Terceira in the Azores archipelago.
These refueling aircraft were used to refuel B-2 bombers, focusing on areas over the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, out of range of ADS-B receivers. In cruising flight, the 45-ton fuel tanks need to be refueled every 6 hours, which explains the need for a tanker aircraft, especially for 7 aircraft loaded with more than 13 tons of weapons.
In a televised intervention, General Dan Caine, member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, described the mission and explained that once "over land, the B-2s linked up with the escort and support aircraft in a complex and meticulous maneuver requiring perfect synchronization in a restricted airspace, all with minimal communications.".
Low radar signature
In addition to its architecture, with no vertical tail, swept leading edges, saw-toothed trailing edges, and radar-absorbing composite skin, the B-2 bomber has a very low radar signature. It also has a specific paint job, costing over $400,000 per liter, called "radar-absorbing." But that's not all.
To avoid detection, the bomber developed by Northrop in the 1980s received a host of cutting-edge equipment. It's no coincidence that it was the most expensive aircraft of the 20th century. In all, it required the work of 3,500 subcontractors and more than 900 new design and manufacturing methods. While Northrop is responsible for the front section and cockpit, and Boeing for the center-forward and exterior sections, many technology companies have taken over the electronics side.
IBM, in particular, supplied an electronic warfare system incorporating a radar emission detector. To recognize the terrain on which it intends to carry out a strike, the bomber also has a synthetic aperture radar from Hughes Aircraft, protected by an electronic countermeasure system to perform jamming, changing frequencies very quickly, and using decoys, such as signals that simulate multiple aircraft.
Once the mission was completed, General Dan Caine stated that 125 aircraft would have participated in the mission, "including B-2 stealth bombers, several flights of 4th and 5th generation fighters, dozens and dozens of aerial refueling aircraft, a missile submarine and a full range of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft, as well as hundreds of maintenance and operations professionals."
According to the Pentagon, Iran's air defenses did not appear to "have detected us for the duration of the mission."
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