SPECIAL EPISODE | Answering Your Questions on the U.S. Airstrikes on Iran, With Erin Dumbacher

The President’s Inbox

Council on Foreign Relations

Politics, News:politics, News

4.5 • 698 Ratings

🗓️ 26 June 2025

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Erin Dumbacher, Stanton Nuclear Security Senior Fellow at the Council, sits down with James M. Lindsay to discuss the U.S. attack on three Iranian nuclear facilities, what the strikes accomplished, and how the conflict might evolve. For an episode transcript and show notes, visit The President’s Inbox at: https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/tpi/answering-your-questions-us-airstrikes-iran-erin-dumbacher

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the President's Inbox. I'm Jim Lindsay, the Marion David Boyes Distinguished Senior Fellow in U.S.
0:08.8	Foreign Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations. This past weekend, the United States launched
0:14.0	Operation Midnight Hammer, which used more than 125 aircraft in 75 precision-guided weapons to attack three nuclear facilities
0:23.3	in Iran. So we're bringing you a special episode to answer the questions you have asked us
0:28.0	about the attack, what it accomplished, and where the conflict might go from here.
0:43.6	To help answer these questions, I asked Aaron Dumbacher to join me.
0:47.8	Aaron is the Stanton Nuclear Security Senior Fellow here at the Council.
0:54.3	She is an expert on international security and technology policy, especially when it comes to nuclear issues.
0:59.5	Erin recently concluded a stint in the Department of Defense in the Office of the Undersecretary for Policies, Force Development in Emerging Capabilities Office.
1:04.4	Erin, thank you for joining on this special episode of the presence inbox.
1:08.2	I'm pleased to be here. Thank you.
1:09.8	Let's jump right into it.
1:11.5	Describe for me, if you can, Operation Midnight Hammer, what U.S. forces were used and what
1:17.5	precisely did they attack? The Pentagon has said that the United States Air Force dropped
1:23.1	14, 30,000 poundpound bunker-buster bombs.
1:28.2	These are the GBU 5-7s, the massive ordinance penetrator?
1:33.2	That's right.
1:33.9	And they've also said it was the first ever use of this weapon operationally.
1:38.3	The U.S. Navy also fired 30 cruise missiles.
1:41.4	We've seen these before.
1:42.3	These are Tomahawks or T. Lam's attack cruise missiles,
1:45.5	likely from an Ohio-class guided missile nuclear submarine. They were fired at three sites in Iran,
	...

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