Operation Midnight Hammer, conducted June 21–22, 2025, targeted Iran’s Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan nuclear sites. Seven B-2 Spirit bombers from the 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman Air Force Base flew an 18-hour mission to Iran, delivering 14 GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Pens, marking the first-ever operational use of the MOP. To maximize surprise, at least six…
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Operation Midnight Hammer occurred June 21–22, 2025, a one-night U.S. stealth airstrike targeting Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. Seven B-2 Spirit bombers departed Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, for an ~18-hour flight to Iran with mid-air refuelings, escorted by F-22 and F-35 fighters and electronic warfare support aircraft. The raid delivered 14 GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator…
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On 22 June at 02:14 a.m. local time, B-2 bombers released at least a dozen 30,000-lb GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator bombs targeting Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. By noon on 22 June, Planet Labs Skysat imagery showed a pale-grey haze over Fordow and two dark impact scars at the vehicle and personnel tunnel portals. Fordow lies…
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On 22 June at 10:22 UTC, Maxar released 0.5-meter imagery showing three circular Fordow blast scars about 25 meters across at the portal area. Planet Labs’ SkySat captured higher-cadence shots showing eastward dust clouds and bulldozers arriving by noon local time. Five classic penetrator indicators are visible in Fordow imagery: entry craters, radial debris ejection,…
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Fordow lies beneath roughly 90 metres of limestone outside Qom and houses Iran’s most advanced uranium-enrichment cascades, with enrichment reaching 60% by June 2025 per the IAEA. Fordow was exposed by Western intelligence in 2009, had activity frozen under the JCPOA from 2013 to 2015, and restarted enrichment from 2019 to 2024, reaching 60% in…
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On 21 June 2025, the U.S. strike package used B-2 launched GBU-57 bunker-busters and sea-launched Tomahawks to damage Natanz and Isfahan and cut external power to Fordow. Maxar Technologies and Planet imagery circulated minutes after President Trump’s confirmation, enabling open-source observers to map bomb craters, scorched roads, and collapsed roofs at Natanz and Isfahan. IAEA…
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Maxar imagery taken 24 hours after Israel’s first wave shows two main halls at Natanz collapsed and scorch marks across adjoining centrifuge assembly buildings, while Isfahan reveals precision craters on the centrifuge‑production workshop. Photos published of the Arak/Khondab heavy‑water reactor show shrapnel holes in the under‑construction dome and distillation towers toppled at the neighbouring heavy‑water…
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February 2009: Iran becomes the ninth country to launch an indigenous satellite with its own rocket, sending Omid into orbit on the Safir launcher. Khayyam (2022) is a 600 kg Earth-observation satellite with 1-meter resolution, built with Russian collaboration and launched by a Russian Soyuz to a ~500 km orbit. Noor-1, Iran’s first military satellite,…
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1957 – The Atoms for Peace agreement between the United States and Iran launches Iran’s civil nuclear program. 1967 – Tehran Research Reactor (TRR) is a 5 MW reactor supplied by the United States, using weapons-grade uranium fuel (93% enriched). 1968–1970 – Iran signs and ratifies the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT); IAEA safeguards enter force…
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Sudan’s internet backbone is centered at Port Sudan and links land via the East Africa Submarine System (EASSy) and FLAG/FALCON, with terrestrial fiber reaching Egypt and Ethiopia. Sudatel (Sudani) is over 60% state-owned and operates the national backbone along with fixed-line, mobile, and internet services under the Sudani brand. Zain Sudan, a subsidiary of Kuwait’s…
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