President Donald Trump has said that the US has ordered "a lot more" B-2 Spirit stealth bombers following their deployment in strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities earlier this year.
Speaking virtually with US military service members, Trump said on Thursday: "You saw that with Iran, with those beautiful B-2 bombers, they totally obliterated the nuclear potential, nuclear supply of Iran.
We just ordered a lot more of them. And the reason we did is they were totally incredible, totally invisible."
Trump authorised US strikes in June targeting Iran’s Fordo and Natanz nuclear sites amid concerns the action could trigger a wider regional escalation.
The Pentagon said the operation, known as Operation Midnight Hammer, involved 14 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs dropped from B-2 aircraft.
The B-2 Spirit, manufactured by Northrop Grumman, remains one of the US’ most advanced long-range stealth platforms and is designed to penetrate sophisticated air-defence systems while delivering precision strikes on high-value targets.
Last October, President Donald Trump announced that the US had ordered 28 new B-2 stealth bombers.
Trump also said that the US had ordered a "new and enhanced" version of the B-2.
The decision to invest in additional stealth platforms also reflects growing concerns over the capabilities of adversarial air defence systems, particularly those developed by China and Russia.
