The US military has developed new strike plans that include potentially using the so-called “mother of all bombs” to target Iranian energy infrastructure and nuclear sites should President Donald Trump give the order to resume combat operations either before or after the midterm elections, according to multiple US officials familiar with the matter.
Using the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb or MOAB, the largest non-nuclear bomb in the US arsenal, for the first time in the conflict with Iran would mark a notable escalation, even though there are doubts over how effective it would be in accomplishing any of Trump’s stated strategic objectives or tipping the balance of the war, multiple sources familiar with internal military planning discussions about potentially deploying the weapon said.
Trump is facing pressure to bring an end to the deeply unpopular war — as Republicans brace for potential political backlash from voters in the upcoming midterm elections and there is little indication the two countries are close to a negotiated resolution after more than six months of US bombing.
This will be mostly performative, as these are meant to bust traditional buried infrastructure, and can’t do anything to find and penetrate secret depots and bases buried beep beneath mountains. This will just prolong trumps Iranian forever war and continue the spread to other nations, which will increase and prolong the economic pain at home in the US, and increase the chances of terror events in the US as well.
Also, isn’t this thing so big it has to be chucked out of a cargo aircraft? I wouldn’t want to fly a c-130 into Iran right now…
I don’t know how they plan to even get it there. There is a reason the US is running low on munitions, but selling Israel a shit load of dumb bombs. We can’t get close enough to Iran to use them. The US had to pullback its aircraft carriers recently for fear of missiles sinking them.