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US B-2 SPIRIT BOMBERS WEREN’T DETECTED DURING THE STRIKES ON IRAN, US Officials Said.
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B-2S Feature Low-Observability, Stealthy Designs and Technologies That Obtri Their Signature on Enemy Radars.
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US DEception and Iran’s Degraded Air Defenses Also Likely Factored into the B-2s’ Success.
The US AIR FORCE’S B-2 SPIRIT BOMBERS That executed Strikes on Iranian Nuclear Facilities Appear to Have Broken in Undetected, The Top US General Said.
“It Appears That Iran’s Surface-To-Air Missile Systems Did Not See Us,” Gen. Dan Caine, The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Said on Sunday. “Throughout the mission, we retained the element of surprise.”
The Degradation of Iran’s Air Defense Network ahead of and During the US Bombing Run, The Purposeful Deception, and the Stealth Features of the Bombs and Escort Aircraft Make That Very Possible.
The US STRIKE ON IRAN Over the Weekend Was the LargeSt B-2 Operational Strike in Us History, the Seven of These Bombs, Each with Two Crew Members, Flew 18 Hours Into Iran to Drop 14 30,000-Pound Bunker-Buster Munations. It was the Second-Longest B-2 Mission Ever Flown. Thought Touted as Major Success, its impact on Iran’s Nuclear Program Remains Hotly Debated.
STEALTH BOMBERS
B-2 Preparing for Strikes Against Iran’s Nuclear Facilities.509th Bomb Wing
The Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit Strategic Bomber Features A Unique Flying-Wing Airframe, Radar-Abent Materials, Edge Alignment, and Other Low-Observable Technologies That Dramatically Reduce The Aircraft’s Radar Cross-Section Across Multiplet Frequency Bands, Making It Difficult for Enemy Air-Defense Radars to Detect, Track, or Target.
For an operator, The Radar Signature May Look More Like A Bird Than A 172-Feet-Wide Bomber-IF IT’s Detected at All.
The B-2 Was Designed in the Late Cold War to Strike Inside The Soviet Union With Nuclear Weapons Without Notice. By then, Automated Flight Controls Had Made the Unstable But High-Lift Flying Wing Viable Design.
The B-2’s Design Shunts Most Radar Energy, and then the Material Handle the Rest. Paired With Strict Radio Silence and the Ability for Low-Ultitude Flight, The Aircraft Can Be Extremell For Hostile Surface-to-Air Missile Batteries to Detect.
But the B-2S Also Weren’t Operating Alone.
Caine, Career Air Force F-16 Pilot, Shared Sunday That Fourth- and Fifth-Gegeration Fighters, Now Known to Include The F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter and F-22 Raptor, Were Part of the Mission, Sweeping in the Strike Package of Bombers for Enemy Fighter jets and surface-to-air missiles. The Mission Was Also Supported by Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Aircraft.
Caine Said the us was Unaware Any Shots Had Been Fired at the Aircraft During Their Mission.
Weakened Enemy Defenses
Israel’s Strikes Earlier This Month Degraded Iran’s Air Defense.Israel Defense Forces
Tehran’s Air Defenses Include Many Older Surface-To-Air Missile Systems with Limited Fusion, Meaning They Aret Suficiently Integrated in a Way That Uses The Full Power of Their Air Defense Network to Detect and Engage Threats.
The Execution of the Operation Most Likely Also Turned on What Came Before: Israel destroyed MUCH OF IRAN’S REMAINING AIR DEFENSES IN THE DAYS LEADING UP TO THE US STRIKE, LEADING ISRAEL TO DECLARE AIR SUPERRITITY OVER PARTS OF IRAN. Many other surface-to-air Missile Systems Were Knocked Out in Previous Engages.
It’s Uncllear What the Specific Air Defense Situation LOOKED Like the Route the B-2s Flew Toward Fordow and Natanz, But Enemy Defenses Were Preemptive-Suppressed by Us Protection Forces, The Fighter Escorts.
The Mountainous Topography Around Facilities Such as Fornaw and Natanz Could Also Create Potentially Exploitable Radar Blind Spots for Iran’s Operation Sensors. The Timing of the Operation, the Middle of the Night, was also Chosen to Challenge the Response of Human Operators.
Deception
While President Donald Trump has Hailed the Operation A Success and Said Iran Will Never Develop Nuclear Weapons, Questions Remain on Remaining Technologies, Encriched Uranium Stockpiles, and Capabilities.185th Air Refeling Wing, Iowa Air National Guard
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth Said the B-2s Flew to the “Nuclear Sites in and Out and Back Without the World Knowing at All,” Highlighting Deception Efforts and Communications Silence That Kept The Mission Secret.
President Donald Trump Had Signaled That He Wold Take Two Weeks to Decide On Whether the Us Wold Strike Iran, and then the hit Came Just Days Later. That, However, Wasn’t the Only Deception.
“As parts of a maintain tactical surprise, part of the package proceded to the west and into the pacific as decoy,” Caine Explained on Sunday, Calling it “A Deception Effort Known Only to an extremély small number of planners and key leaders here in Washington and In Lid. ” ADDITIONAL DECOCRAFT WERE USED AS THE BOMBERS BERBERS IRANIAN AIRSPACE, HE SAID.
THOUGH TRUMP HAS CALLED THE STRIKES A SMASHING SUCCESS, IT REMAINS UNCLEAR WHETHER IRAN COULD STILL Build Nuclear Weapons In the near Future. The status of iran’s critical technologies and the whereabouts of its Highly Encrys Uranium are unknown, and most of its nuclear scientists are Believed to have been evacuated well ahead of the strikes.
The American Strikes on the Nuclear Facilities Came After Israel Launches A New Operation Directed at Degrating Iran’s Nuclear Program Earlier this month.
While the Trump Administration Had Preferred Pursuing A Diplomatic Approach, Trying to Reach the New Nuclear Deal with Iran, Israel Opted for Violence, Drive Far-Reaching Military Action Tehran’s Nuclear Facilities, Top Scientists, Senior Commanders, and Air Defenses. The US then Joined Those Efforts with a Tremendous Display of Force.
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