When America's B-2 bombers took off from a military base in Missouri and some of them made their way towards the Pacific, flight tracking enthusiasts had noted that was unusual and it would turn out to be intentionally so.
The United States had launched a B-2 bomber "strike package" but to maintain tactical surprise, the aircraft very visibly proceeded west and over the Pacific.
Now, the highest military officer in the US has revealed they were doing so "as a decoy".
Meanwhile, "the main strike package, comprised of seven B-2 spirit bombers, each with two crew members, proceeded quietly to the east", General Dan Caine said at a Pentagon briefing on Sunday morning, local time.
With minimal communication, the aircraft proceeded across the Atlantic for the 18-hour flight into the target area, he said.
Any movement of those B-2 aircraft would have been closely watched because these are the war machines capable of delivering the so-called "bunker busting bombs" that Israel has been wanting deployed in its war against Iran.
Each stealth bomber can carry two "massive ordinance penetrator" bombs in its weapons bay and as the group of B-2s broke east towards Iran, they were fully loaded.
After taking off at midnight on Saturday, local time, the B-2s were joined by an escort "support package" of fighter jets 17 hours later.
The aircraft refuelled in-flight multiple times.
"Once over land, the B-2 linked up with escort and support aircraft in a complex tightly timed manoeuvre requiring exact synchronisation … in a narrow piece of airspace, all done with minimal communications," General Caine said.
From there it was just less than two hours until they would be over their targets.
At approximately the same time, a US submarine in the region "launched more than two dozen Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles against key surface infrastructure targets", General Caine said.
By early Saturday evening Washington time, the B-2s and their escorts crossed into Iranian airspace.
"As the Operation Midnight Hammer strike package entered Iranian airspace, the US employed several deception tactics, including decoys," General Caine said.
"As the [escort] aircraft pushed out in front of the strike package at high altitude and high speed, [they were] sweeping in front of the package for enemy fighters and surface to air missile threats."
We know the specific targets for this mission were Iran's Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear sites.
The decoys were set, the three components of American military had been coordinated and were now making their way to their targets to drop the massive payload on the facilities the US and Israel believe are critical to Iran's nuclear potential.
Inside the White House Situation Room, Donald Trump was flanked by General Caine, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as well as his chief of staff, and other members of his cabinet and inner circle.
The group watched on as Operation Midnight Hammer reached its destination.
At approximately 6:40pm, Washington time, the lead B-2 dropped two massive ordnance penetrator (MOPs) weapons on the first target, which was the Fordow nuclear facility.
"The remaining bombers then hit their targets as well, with a total of 14 MOPs dropped against two nuclear target areas. All three Iranian nuclear infrastructure targets were struck between 6:40pm and 7:05pm Eastern Time," General Caine said.
"The Tomahawk missiles being the last to strike … to ensure we retain the element of surprise throughout the operation."
Once the bombs had been released, the aircraft left Iranian airspace and the "package began its return home".
General Caine called the decoy move a "deception effort" and said it was only known to an "extremely small number of planners and key leaders" in Washington and Tampa, Florida, where the US Central Command is based.
Mr Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have said the targets were obliterated, but are yet to provide evidence of the extent of the damage.
General Caine was more measured, saying damage assessments would take some time, but that "initial battle damage assessments indicate that all three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction".
Inside Iran, state media initially downplayed the damage, saying they had prepared for the attack, but it is also hard to verify those claims.
General Caine said throughout the mission, the US retained the element of surprise.
"Iran's fighters did not fly and it appears that Iran's surface to air missile systems did not see us," he said.
Two weeks, two days
The president of the United States had spent the week seemingly racing towards a decision on whether to strike inside Iran, only then to issue a single-line statement via his press secretary that he would give himself two weeks to make the decision.
In the end, he took two days.
And from details released on Sunday at the Pentagon, it appears that the US plan to send its finest war machines to bomb a former ally was very much ready, just waiting to be put in motion.
"This is a plan that took months and weeks of positioning and preparation so that we could be ready when the president of the United States called," Mr Hegseth said.
He said "the mission was not and has not been about regime change" in Iran.
"The president authorised a precision operation to neutralise the threats to our national interests posed by the Iranian nuclear program and the collective self-defence of our troops," he said.
"The United States does not seek war, but let me be clear we will act swiftly and decisively when our people, our partners or our interests are threatened."
Iran has promised to respond.
"Now it is our turn to, without wasting time, as a first step, fire missiles at the US naval fleet in Bahrain and at the same time close the Strait of Hormuz to American, British, German and French ships," Hossein Shariatmadari, a representative of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in the hardline Kayhan newspaper.
The use of the massive ordnance penetrator bombs against Iran is the first ever operational use of these weapons.
"This was the largest B-2 operation strike in US history and the second longest B-2 mission ever flown, exceeded only by those in the days following 911," General Caine said.
