The US military posted pictures online this month of a powerful bunker-busting bomb that could destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities it has built deep underground. The publication of the pictures is seen as a veiled threat as it came amid soaring tensions between the US and Iran.
According to The Associated Press, the pictures were only briefly online on May 2 and were removed because they revealed sensitive information about the bomb, the GBU-57, known as the Massive Ordnance Penetrator.
The pictures were posted on the Facebook page of the Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, which houses a fleet of B-2 bombers, the only US aircraft that are capable of carrying the heavy Massive Ordnance Penetrator.
In 2019, the US military posted a video of a B-2 bomber dropping two GBU-57s amid heightened tensions with Iran. The US also often deploys bombers to the Middle East to send a message to Tehran, although they typically send B-52s.
AP also reported that Iran’s new underground nuclear facility that is currently being built might be deeper than the GBU-57 can reach. Based on satellite images, the report estimated the facility could be between 260 and 328 feet underground. The US Air Force has said the GBU-57 can penetrate facilities 200 feet underground.
Iran has built more facilities underground in response to Israeli sabotage attacks on its civilian nuclear program. Israeli officials also often threaten to take overt military action against Iranian nuclear facilities, but they don’t possess bunker-busting bombs or aircraft capable of carrying them.
“AP also reported that Iran’s new underground nuclear facility that is currently being built might be deeper than the GBU-57 can reach. Based on satellite images, the report estimated the facility could be between 260 and 328 feet underground. The US Air Force has said the GBU-57 can penetrate facilities 200 feet underground.”
Can’t have that. We’ll need some more cash for some bunker busters that can keep up with Iran’s digging.
Of course the Iranians have prepared. The problem however is that these Washington DC neocons don’t live in the real world.
They’re profoundly racist, for starters. We have seen this with their despicable racism towards Russia and Russians.
Convinced not just of their intellectual and moral superiority, they also believe that Iranians are no more than inferior and primitive Arabs/Persians – and therefore incapable of preparing fortified defences for bunker buster bombs.
That’s how grandiose these neocons are. They truly believe that they are historic individuals on a noble cause, and that they can sweep at will any adversary (mostly imagined ones) out of the way.
It’s pathological, much like their lying. They’re mentally ill, in my view. Evidence being that no real world evidence to date has appeared to be able to shake them from their delusions. I fear that sooner or later, as their failures overseas continue to mount, they’ll try to take out their anger and humiliation on the American people.
Penetration depth is highly variable. Stone and soil have varying density and layering. Nobody really knows if these will work as advertised.
There is only one way to know, that is to try it. Some seem determined to find out.
See, the problem with being short sighted is that no one will tell you what comes next when you finally do use these bunker busting bombs.
Sadly, I live somewhat near (>100 miles) to the Whiteman Air Force Base. In a global nuculear war, I imagine the base will be attacked. If the wind is travelling east or northeast, it will affect me.
“” In a global nuclear war …. “” we will all be screwed.
there is no escape.
“On the Beach”. In all reality.
St. George and Tooele in Utah were down wind from the proving grounds. A significant amount of the residue from the blasts drifted over those communities. A well kept secret (not).
I live about an hour from Los Alamos Labs, here in NM… Los Alamos is the birthplace of THE BOMB… That aside, it is a beautiful place…”angry red, drips from the sky and thru the pukish haze emerges, the hideous grotesque shape of man, standing naked, the nature of our beginnings”…
Iran can also post its bunker busting missiles similar to the ones that landed in US base in Iraq…! But, the retaliation aims would be bunkers that US soldiers hide this time around…!
More inflammatory threats by a hubristic Washington DC, that still lives in the early 1990s.
Washington doesn’t seem to have realised yet that in 2023, no one fears the US anymore. I mean, how many debacles do these morons need to rack up, to learn the lesson that the world has changed?
Iran isn’t Afghanistan. In 2023, it has a powerful military, and very powerful friends (Russia and China) in a powerful region, that wants America to leave. Any military attack by the US against Iran would invite consequences – very unpleasant ones – for US military forces and assets in the region.
Do Biden & Co really want viral videos out there of US soldiers being slaughtered by retaliatory Iranian missiles and drones? Because that’s what will happen..at a minimum.
So go ahead you DC idiots, attack Iran. Forget humility and negotiation, keep using the threatening and arrogant approach that’s been working so well for you to date (not). Hell, why not use bunker buster bombs (that Iran would have already prepared against)? What could possibly go wrong?
Just remember that the law of unintended consequences applies. See what happens. Prediction: like everything else you failures do, it won’t end well for the US.
It makes more sense, to me, for the US/Israel to have a sit down with Iran and invite them to join the nuclear club.