Nearly Two Decades Of Clandestine Intel Ops, Planning Went Into Iran Strikes

The U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities were the product of nearly two decades of careful, secret planning, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine told reporters Thursday.

Caine laid out how two unnamed agents in Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) patiently gathered intel on the Fordow nuclear facility over the course of 15 years, culminating in targeted strikes down two ventilation shafts with purpose-made “bunker buster” bombs on June 21. Numerous U.S. and Israeli officials have insisted that the strikes did considerable damage to Iran’s nuclear capabilities, despite a leaked low-confidence preliminary intel report that was referenced in a Wednesday CNN story suggesting minimal damage to the sites.

“DTRA is the world’s leading expert on deeply buried underground targets,” Caine said during the briefing. “For more than 15 years, this officer and his teammate lived and breathed this single target Fordow, a critical element of Iran’s covert nuclear weapons program.”

A diagram of Fordow Nuclear Site shown to reporters during a Pentagon press briefing June 26, 2025. (Screenshot/DOD)

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Caine said the two DTRA operatives began their observations in 2009, cataloguing every aspect of the Fordow nuclear site, including its electrical and environmental systems, overall layout and all inbound and outbound traffic. The two operatives were working in near total secrecy, telling next to no one their mission over the two decades.

“They literally dreamed about this target at night when they slept,” Caine said during the briefing.