Midnight Hammer proved upgraded bombers and fighters dominate, showcasing today's force's surprising readiness against advanced threats, bridging the gap to future warfighting.
By Kris Osborn, Warrior
The B-21 stealth bomber, F-47 6th-Gen fighter, SSN(X) future attack submarine and F/A-XX are all promising, paradigm-changing future platforms now exploding toward operational life at high speeds …but can they get here soon enough? How ready and capable is “today’s” force for tomorrow’s fight? A critical question likely to occupy a clear resting place in the minds of Pentagon planners.
Answers to this question can likely be found in less visible elements of the highly successful Operation Midnight Hammer, as the mission demonstrated that upgraded current platforms and the potential addition of new tactics and technologies, can perform with great effectiveness. Upgraded B-2 bombers, escorted by modernized F-35s flew in protected, highly effective formations seemingly capable of both eluding detection and ensuring Iranian air defenses were destroyed or disabled.
Operation Midnight Hammer
The more than 125-aircraft operation showed that massively upgraded current or legacy platforms can maintain relevance and even ensure continued superiority in a modern threat environment. Iran is known to operate large numbers of advanced attack drones, Russian-built air defenses and a large arsenal of ballistic missiles, yet Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that there were no indications that the B-2s were detected in any way during Operation Midnight Hammer.
There is little question that the now emerging next-generation platforms are seriously needed, and their production is without question being accelerated, yet today’s force does seem capable of providing a relevant “bridge” to the future to a certain extent. With the integration of AI-enabled computer processing, new generations of weapons and sensors and breakthrough data, communications and command and control systems, many existing platforms do seem capable of adapting to a new threat environment. Operation Midnight Hammer even involved the use of 4th-generation aircraft.
Legacy Upgrades
The evidence of how the integration of new technology changes existing platforms is far too vast to fully detail, capture or characterize, as new radar, avionics, sensing and long-range weapons have been integrated into a wide range of platforms; today’s B-2 flies with a 1,000 fold faster computer processor, advanced sensing and reconfigured command and control. Today’s F-35 flies with a larger and more complex threat data library and software upgrades enabling longer-range, high-resolution sensing and the integration of paradigm-changing air-to-air and air-to-ground weapons. Today’s B-52 has a new engine, reconfigured internal weapons bay and the ability to launch drones and next-generation cruise missiles. Even 4th-generation platforms such as the F-15E have been configured with new AESA radar, computing, avionics and weapons. Many technological breakthroughs in recent years in the realm of computing, sensing, weapons guidance, EW and stealth enable platforms to reach entirely new levels of performance parameters without needing to be completely rebuilt or re-engineered.
Tactical Elements of Modernization
There is also a substantial tactical element of all of this, as emerging technologies open up new concepts of operation and change maneuver formations. For example, while there are not likely to be many operational details from Operation Midnight Hammer available for understandable security reasons, it seems entirely possible that the mission included previously unavailable technologies such as manned-unmanned teaming, advanced EW or even some AI-enabled computing.
Kris Osborn is the President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a highly qualified expert in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel.