[Official Trailer] Inside Operation MIDNIGHT HAMMER | The F-16 Wild Weasels Who Flew Into Iran
6/19/20265 min
YT: https://youtu.be/rvVVQ3n081I
This is the untold story of the F-16 pilots who flew deeper into Iran than any fourth-generation aircraft during Operation Midnight Hammer, the historic B-2 strike targeting Iran's nuclear sites with the Massive Ordnance Penetrator. These were the only non-stealth jets escorting the B-2 strike package, flying over 250 nautical miles into one of the most sophisticated integrated air defense networks on Earth, well beyond the range of any personnel recovery assets. These pilots provided Suppression of Enemy Air Defense (SEAD) coverage for the B-2's. When air refueling assets fell out before they even left Saudi airspace, these crews didn't abort. They improvised, redirected tankers, and executed refueling at speeds the F-16 had never done before in combat conditions. This is the first-person account from the pilots themselves. What they saw over Iran, what they were thinking at bingo fuel, and what it actually took to bring every aircraft home. Operation Midnight Hammer | F-16 SEAD | Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses | Iran nuclear strikes | Twelve Day War | 55th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron | AGM-88 HARM | Wild Weasel
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First 90 secondsRain· Host0:00
This project has been in the works for quite some time, and honestly, I didn't know if it would even see the light of day. This is the F-16 story, the Wild Weasels that participated in Operation Midnight Hammer. It is primarily built for a YouTube channel, The Afterburn Defense, be video focused. I recognize that some of you either don't know we have a YouTube channel or two, just like the audio format, and you're fine skipping the visuals. So the next few episodes you'll hear on here is the three-part series being released. And again, it lives over on YouTube, and I'll link that down below if you're interested in checking that portion out. Also coming are the full interviews with the people that I sat down with in December of 2025 and January of 2026. The pilots, the maintainers, the logistics folks who all played critical roles in Operation Midnight Hammer. Specifically, when we talk about F-16 and the Wild Weasel mission, suppression of enemy air defenses. We also talk about Operation Rough Rider, which was really the segue to bring the F-16 into Operation Midnight Hammer, which I think I'm not alone in saying I was surprised to hear the F-16 participated in Operation Midnight Hammer because we have to jump back and put ourselves in the mindset of the summer of 2025. Iran had a big integrated air defense network, or at least we thought, or we thought it'd be more capable. And we thought that sending a fourth generation asset into a country with a defense network such