Hey, if you're an automoban enthusiast, you should check out the Carcast podcast hosted by Matt, the moderator DeAndre, W.W.E. Superstar Bill Goldberg and Edmonds, editor-in-chief, Alistair Weaver. They talk about everything from performance aftermarket to new car buying and reviews. Subscribe to the Carcast on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcast. All right, so Operation Midnight Hammer, you might have heard about this. This has made a few talking points across the media the last few days and a lot of people have dove deep into what's going on here. Today we're going to hit some of those highlights to recap. Just in case you live in living underneath the rock, which is impressive that you've survived given the fact of what Operation Midnight Hammer was capable of doing and did. We're going to talk about the E7 Wedgetail. That's the chopping block as well as the F-35 is making some cuts for fiscal year 2026. We're getting the lowdown back going again. It's been a little bit of hiatus. It's been working on other projects for the podcast. So that being said, let's get into it and we'll talk about Operation Midnight Hammer

as well as what's going on with the E7 Wedgetail as well as the F-35 program because again,

there's some significant updates happening in both those arenas. So let's jump into Operation Midnight

Hammer. We'll hit a recap what's happened with that. But first, if you're not a lowdown subscriber,

make sure you click the link down below in the description and you get this newsletter free each and every week. That's my goal. And it's everything that's happening in defense and aviation, things that I find interesting that if you like this type stuff and you're watching it, you'll probably find interesting as well. So check out the newsletter. You can click the link down below. Sign up. It's free. And then there'll be some back and forth with automation. Make sure you're not a robot. And then we're off to the races there. So check that out. So real quick, here's the recap of the last few days of the U.S. executing Operation Midnight Hammer, which was a massive strike on Iranian nuclear facilities. This involved 125 plus aircraft, B2s, Tomahawk missiles, cyber, space,

and everything in between to make this mission happen.

From the get-go, what I think is really impressive is in today's age

with the plane spotters via websites like Flight Aware,

it is tough to just cover up movements.

And we saw this occurring over last weekend with all the tankers flowing eastbound

to Europe and the Middle East.

Everyone and their brother was tracking it.

But the deceptive part was the four tankers that took off the next day,

flew overhead Whiteman Air Force Base,

home to the B2, and flew westbound. A deceptive tactic to make sure that these B2s would not be

noticed, or the primary B2s, seven of which were not noticed as they flowed eastbound. Something that

was not necessarily an issue 20, 30, 40 years ago.

Now, there's always operational security concerns, but in today's age with an iPhone or

Android, God forbid, you can quickly track a plane anywhere in the world.

So I'd say a tip of the hat of factoring that into the mission planning now.

Obviously, the B2 guys, not only they're worried about stealth, but they're worried about the

operational security piece.

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