Pentagon Deploys Warplanes with ‘Bunker Busting’ Bombs to Deter Iran

A-10 Thunderbolt II reconnaissance support aircraft arrive at al-Dhafra Airport in the UAE (US airforce)

The US mil­i­tary is for the first time putting 250-pound “bunker bust­ing” bombs on at­tack air­craft re­cently sent to the Mid­dle East in the lat­est move to de­ter Iran, US of­fi­cials said.

Wall Street Journal reported that the de­ci­sion to put more pow­er­ful weapons on a squadron of A-10 Warthogs was de­signed to give pi­lots a greater chance of suc­cess in de­stroy­ing am­mu­ni­tion bunkers and other en­trenched tar­gets in Iraq and Syria, where US forces have been re­peat­edly tar­geted by Iran-backed fight­ers.

The move marks the first time that the US mil­i­tary will put these pre­ci­sion-guided weapons on board the Warthogs, which were re­cently re­fit­ted so that they could each carry up to 16 bunker busters, known for­mally as GBU-39/B bombs.

The pow­er­ful bombs are ar­riv­ing in the Mid­dle East at a time of height­ened ten­sions with Iran.

On Thurs­day, Iran’s Rev­o­lu­tion­ary Guard Corps (IRGC) de­tained an oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman as it car­ried crude to the US from Kuwait.

Air Force Lt. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich said the A-10s are highly ef­fec­tive at some things we need to do.

Grynkewich over­sees US mil­i­tary op­er­a­tions in the skies above Syria and 20 other na­tions in the Mid­dle East and South­east Asia as head of the US Air Forces Cen­tral Com­mand.

The new squadron rep­re­sents a 50 percent in­crease in the num­ber of at­tack air­craft in the re­gion, Grynkewich said.

The Pen­tagon sent the Warthog squadron, usu­ally around 12 planes, to the Mid­dle East last month af­ter Iran-backed forces car­ried out a se­ries of at­tacks on US bases in Syria, in­clud­ing one sui­cide-drone strike that killed a US con­trac­tor.

US Pres­i­dent Joe Biden re­sponded to the at­tacks by or­der­ing airstrikes on Iran-backed mil­i­tants in Syria.

Mov­ing the Warthogs into the Mid­dle East was part of a broader ef­fort to beef up the US mil­i­tary pres­ence amid ris­ing con­cerns about at­tacks by Iran and its mil­i­tant al­lies across the re­gion.

The up­grade will give the Warthogs more fire­power than F-15 jet fight­ers, US of­fi­cials said.

It also rep­re­sents an ad­vance on the mil­i­tary’s ef­forts to demon­strate the value of the ag­ing Warthog fleet that Pen­tagon of­fi­cials have been try­ing to re­tire for more than a decade.

The US mil­i­tary also an­nounced the ar­rival last month of a guided-mis­sile sub­ma­rine in the Mid­dle East, a pub­lic show of force.
At the time, US of­fi­cials said they had in­tel­li­gence that Iran was pre­paring to carry out a drone at­tack on a com­mer­cial ship in the re­gion, some­thing Wash­ing­ton has ac­cused Tehran of do­ing sev­eral times in re­cent years.

Meanwhile, new research by Uk-based Conflict Armament Research (CAR) revealed that the Shahed-136 drones sold to Russia by Iran are powered by an engine based on German technology – technology illicitly acquired by Iran almost 20 years ago.

The finding – made through a detailed examination of components recovered in Ukraine and shared exclusively with CNN – underlines Iran’s ability to mimic and finesse military technology it has obtained illegitimately.

CNN reported that Western officials are also concerned that Russia may share Western-made weapons and equipment recovered on the Ukrainian battlefield with the Iranians. So far, there’s no firm evidence that this has happened.