US quietly sent hundreds of Hellfire missiles to Israel before Iran attack
By Sean Mathews
Posted on June 18, 2025
The US quietly delivered hundreds of Hellfire missiles to Israel before its unprecedented attack on Iran on Friday, Middle East Eye can reveal.
The US sent around 300 Hellfire missiles to Israel on Tuesday in a large-scale stock-up of supplies before its attack, and as the Trump administration was saying it was ready to continue engaging Iran in nuclear talks.
The transfer of such a large quantity of Hellfires suggests that the Trump administration was well-informed of Israel’s plans to attack the Islamic Republic of Iran, two US officials told MEE on the condition of anonymity.
The US’s delivery of Hellfires or other large quantities of weapons in the lead up to Friday’s attack has not been previously reported.
The US military helped shoot down Iranian missiles that were headed towards Israel, two US officials told Reuters on Friday.
Hellfires are laser-guided air-to-ground missiles. They would not be useful for Israel to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities, but for precision strikes.
Israel’s military used more than 100 aircraft in its attack on Friday, which used precision tracking to target senior military officials, nuclear scientists, and command centres.
“There is a time and place for Hellfires. They were useful to Israel,” one senior US defence official told MEE.
Israel killed scores of senior Iranian officials and nuclear scientists on Friday.
The dead include: the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Major General Hossein Salami; Major General Mohammad Bagheri, the chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces; and Ali Shamkhani, a close aide to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The Trump administration knew about Israel’s attack plans for months.
MEE revealed earlier this month that the CIA was briefed in April and May on Israeli plans to unilaterally attack Iran’s nuclear sites. Israel’s Target Systems Analysis and battle plan for cyberattacks combined with precision strikes without any direct US involvement “impressed” the administration.
But Trump’s behaviour in recent months gave observers, and potentially the Iranians, the impression that he would continue to resist Netanyahu’s very public lobbying to go along with strikes.
Axios reported on Friday, citing two Israeli officials, that the Trump administration was only “pretending” to resist Israel’s attack plans, but privately did not resist them.
Trump has since framed his approach as saying that he gave Iran a 60-day window to agree to a new nuclear agreement with his administration before launching strikes. Israeli media reported the 60-day deadline in March 2025.
The Trump administration began talks with Iran on 12 April 2025, and the Israeli attack took place exactly 61 days later.
The talks in recent weeks hit a wall over the US’s insistence that Iran agree not to enrich any uranium, while Tehran said that preserving its right to a low level of enrichment was a red line.
Throughout the negotiations, the Trump administration continued a steady supply of arms and weapons to Israel in recent months, two US officials told MEE.
The US did not have to provide public notification of the transfer because it was already approved as part of a $7.4bn arms deal that included bombs, missiles, and related equipment that Congress was notified of in February 2025.
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