The B-2 Spirit bombers used in the assault on Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility were equipped with basic creature comforts — including toilets, microwaves, and coolers — to help pilots endure the grueling 37-hour round-trip flight from Missouri.
These advanced stealth aircraft, originally developed to deliver nuclear payloads during the Cold War, launched from Whiteman Air Force Base near Kansas City on Friday. The marathon flight to Iran and back involved multiple mid-air refuelings, according to military officials.
Because the mission involved nearly two full days in the air, the planes’ interiors were outfitted with conveniences such as small refrigerators and microwave ovens, allowing the two-man crews to stay nourished and focused throughout the journey.
To accommodate the long-haul nature of the mission, the planes also featured an onboard toilet — a necessity for such extended flights.
Each aircraft also had a designated area that allowed one pilot to rest while the other remained at the controls, taking turns to operate the jet during the long hours aloft.
Introduced into service in 1997, each B-2 stealth bomber comes with a staggering price tag of over $2 billion. The U.S. Air Force maintains a fleet of 19 aircraft, following the loss of one in a crash back in 2008.
With their sweeping 172-foot wingspan and a crew limited to just two, these high-tech jets depend heavily on automated systems to carry out extended missions across the globe.
According to The Telegraph, the seven bombers assigned to Operation “Midnight Hammer” maintained radio silence for nearly the entire duration of their flight. Pilots alternated sleep shifts during the tense hours leading up to and following the strike.
The raid on Fordow represented the longest continuous B-2 mission since the early stages of the U.S. campaign in Afghanistan after the September 11 attacks in 2001.
To prepare for such grueling operations, B-2 crews train specifically for extreme endurance flights. As reported by The Atlantic, some past missions have seen crews bring along makeshift sleeping setups like cots or full-length camping pads.
The bombers didn’t fly solo the entire time. As they neared Iranian airspace, they were joined by fighter jets and other support aircraft to coordinate the complex strike.
“The B-2s linked up with escort and support aircraft in a complex, tightly timed maneuver requiring exact synchronization across multiple platforms in a narrow piece of airspace, all done with minimal communications,” Gen Daniel Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, touted in a statement.
Caine said the attack inside Iranian territory began at 6:40 p.m. ET on Saturday and lasted 25 minutes. The lead bomber dropped a pair of GBU-57 “bunker buster” bombs on “the first of several aim points at Fordow.”
“The remaining bombers then hit their targets, as well, with a total of 14 MOPs (Massive Ordnance Penetrators) dropped against two nuclear target areas,” he added.
This mission marked the first instance of the U.S. deploying the 15-ton GBU-57 bunker busters in active combat.
“There is not another military in the world that could have done this,” President Trump wrote on Truth Social when revealing the attack on Iran.

{Matzav.com}