The U.S. military was able to carry out its strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities on Saturday without Iran firing back, but leading up to the daring mission, U.S. officials feared Donald Trump would tip off Tehran.
The president had been speaking openly with reporters and posting on social media about Iran for more than a week as the conflict between Israel and Iran escalated. He held off revealing his ultimate intention, but appeared to be toying with the Iranians.
In the end, the Trump administration was able to pull off the mission, but according to the New York Times, planners began to worry that Trump would give Iran too much warning and devised a decoy to throw off suspicion.
The White House on Thursday announced in a statement from the president that Trump would decide within two weeks on attacking Iran.
The president also repeatedly crowed on the White House lawn and from the Oval Office that he hadn’t yet decided, but he also posted numerous times about Iran while weighing his decision.
“Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!” Trump wrote in one social media post last week.
“We know exactly where the so-called “Supreme Leader” is hiding. He is an easy target, but is safe there,” Trump claimed in another, but he shared with the world that the U.S. would not “take him out.”
As late as Friday evening, as activity to launch the strikes was already underway, the president was still casually chatting with reporters about his looming decision.
But while the president told the American public to stay tuned, U.S. officials set their own deception plan into action.
As the strike mission was being carried out, the U.S. sent a second group of B-2 bombers from Missouri west toward the Pacific.
The flight path signaled to anyone keeping a close eye on the U.S. that the timing and path of the attack on Iran could come from another direction.
That plan was largely in place before the president declared his two-week timeline, and the B-2 mission west provided the cover and clean-up necessary, the Times reported.
The mission to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities, named “Operation Midnight Hammer,” involved B-2 bombers launching from the U.S. early Saturday morning, with the decoy planes heading west.
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine publicly revealed the deception effort was known only to a small number of planners on Sunday, and the U.S. was able to maintain its element of surprise throughout the mission.
While the decoy planes headed west, the main group, including seven bombers each with two crew members, went east with minimal communications as they made the 18-hour journey.
The carefully executed mission also involved refueling tankers and fighter jets.
A submarine in the region also launched more than 24 missiles against Iranian targets in Isfahan just before the bombers entered Iran.
Caine said that in the end, they were not aware of any shots fired at the U.S. aircraft as they went in to complete the mission or on the way out after striking Iranian facilities.
Iran’s fighters did not deploy, and surface-to-air missile systems did not engage the U.S. bombers.
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