The United States launched Operation Midnight Hammer over the weekend. In addition to sounding like a wild, albeit low-budget action movie, the strike targeted three nuclear sites in Iran using a coordinated effort including many B-2 Spirit Stealth Bombers. However, faux images of downed B-2 Spirit airplanes had viewers scratching their heads over the weekend. Fortunately, the AI-generated imagery proved fake, and every stealth bomber returned home to Missouri after the strike. 

Wild AI fake images of B-2 Spirit Stealth Bombers shot down in Iranian airspace 

Misinformation enjoyed a field day over the weekend following the US strikes on targets within Iran. And one of the most-watched culprits: fake, AI-generated images of B-2s shot down over Iran. One such image showed a mortally wounded B-2 on the ground, surrounded by emergency crews.

But the BBC debunked the image, citing abnormalities consistent with typical AI fakes. For instance, one emergency worker seems to simply melt into the background. Sloppy. Make no mention of sizing issues, like another image wherein three Iranian soldiers appear much larger than the downed aircraft. 

The United States government echoed the claims that no such event took place during the operation. Seven B-2 Spirits departed and returned to Whiteman Air Force Base as planned, leaving none of the billion-dollar bombers on the ground 7,000 miles away. Frankly, it would be pretty difficult to sweep the loss of a single B-2 under the rug. The Missouri USAF base is home to the 509th Bomb Wing, the only unit in the US military with B-2 Spirit aircraft in its arsenal. 

AP News captured the return-to-base, snapping pictures of the stealth bombers as they arrived in two groups. Interestingly enough, the Air Force scrambled a group of B-2 Spirits to cause confusion and throw Iranian intelligence services off the scent of the eastward bombers. The deception plan proved successful; the US government claims that Iran failed to detect any of the bombers throughout the mission. 

Fake images aside, the B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber’s record isn’t blemish-free. A 2008 crash right after takeoff took one of the country’s B-2s out of commission. Interestingly enough, the non-lethal event proved to be the most expensive airplane crash ever. See, every B-2 Spirit costs well over $1 billion. The “Spirit of Kansas,” the stealth bomber involved in the crash, reportedly cost the US government $1.4 billion.

While other stealth-capable aircraft have crashed before, like the F-35 Lightning II that crashed at Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska earlier this year, nothing comes close to B-2’s price tag. That US Air Force F-35, for instance, costs around $82.5 million. And that’s a far cry from the massive ask to build a B-2 bomber.