Detailed plans shared
Hegseth goes on to share the plans in extraordinary detail, according to The Atlantic:
- 1215et: friend-18s LAUNCH (1st strike package)”
- “1345: ‘Trigger Based’ friend-18 1st Strike Window Starts (Target Terrorist is @ his Known Location so SHOULD BE ON TIME – also, Strike Drones Launch (MQ-9s)”
- “1410: More friend-18s LAUNCH (2nd strike package)”
- “1415: Strike Drones on Target (THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP, pending earlier ‘Trigger Based’ targets)”
- “1536 friend-18 2nd Strike Starts – also, first sea-based Tomahawks launched.”
That information, according to The Atlantic, was received “two hours before the scheduled start of the bombing of Houthi positions.”
“If this information — particularly the exact times American aircraft were taking off for Yemen — had fallen into the wrong hands in that crucial two-hour period, American pilots and other American personnel could have been exposed to even greater danger than they ordinarily would face,” Goldberg and Harris wrote.
National security adviser Mike Waltz later texted to confirm that the target was in a building that collapsed and the strike was successful.
“The first target – their top missile guy – we had positive ID of him walking into his girlfriend’s building and it’s now collapsed,” Waltz wrote at 2 p.m. ET.
And later in the day, Hegseth confirmed to the group that more strikes were coming.