A continuous flight over 18 hours, multiple mid-air refuelings, and a series of decoys - this is how the mission to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities played out, according to four-star General Dan Caine, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest-ranking officer in the US military.
Although the full impact of what the US is calling 'Operation Midnight Hammer' is still unclear, a timeline of how the complex mission unfolded was laid out in a Pentagon briefing on Sunday morning, mere hours after the strikes.
American bombers went "in and out and back without the world knowing at all", US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told reporters.
It all began just after midnight when Secretary Hegseth joined US President Donald Trump, Vice-President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and elite Pentagon staff in the Situation Room at the White House to watch as a fleet of aircraft departed an American airbase in rural Missouri.
Under the cover of darkness, B-2 stealth bombers took off from Whiteman Air Force Base at 00:01 EDT (05:01 BST), according to the Pentagon.
