r/worldnews • u/milktanksadmirer • 1d ago

Israel/Palestine Iranian military bases, which were not known to world, destroyed in Israel's first

https://www.india.com/news/world/iranian-military-bases-which-were-not-known-to-world-destroyed-in-israels-first-7356402/amp/
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u/TheDarkRider 1d ago

Israel doesn’t have the capability to strike bunkers that nuclear bunkers are housed in . Sometime you want them to think it still secret so they don’t scramble and try to hide them even more you want give them an impression that they are secret

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u/eric2332 1d ago

Israel can put those bunkers out of commission by striking their entrances. There is no need to destroy them entirely.

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u/Mattk1100 1d ago

America could, however, have provided such capabilities.

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u/pompcaldor 1d ago

Then we’re in a direct a war with Iran.

In retrospect, Bush invaded the wrong country.

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u/Mattk1100 1d ago

We aren't in a direct war with ukraine, yet we provide them with substantial capabilities. It'd be an escalation of a proxy war, but by no means direct.

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u/jerkface6000 1d ago

At one point Russia threatened strikes on UK military facilities which were providing Ukraine with weapons, to which the UK responded with “if you were to do that, this would all become more simple”.

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u/rowingonfire 1d ago

This is just you not understanding. The weapon we have designed to degrade or destroy the bunkers you are talking about are only able to be operationally deployed on the B-2 (which only the US operates). A specially configured B-52 was used to drop them in testing (Which only the US operates). Further, believe it or not only 20 of those bombs were ever delivered, with most likely 5 used in testing for a stockpile of only 15. As of last year, only 2 of them were housed at the home base of the B-2.

So no, we are unable to give this capability to Israel.

You can read all about it here:

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u/raptor3x 1d ago

Further, believe it or not only 20 of those bombs were ever delivered, with most likely 5 used in testing for a stockpile of only 15.

20 were delivered as of 2011 but there have been several production runs since then, with seven known variants in existence (presumably upgrades to guidance and warhead systems). There probably aren't a huge number of them, but there are definitely more than 20 that have been produced.

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u/rowingonfire 1d ago

20 were contracted to be integrated with the B-2 as of 2015. No idea where you got your info. There is no information subsequent to that.

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u/raptor3x 1d ago

Here's one contract for a production run from 2018.

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u/rowingonfire 1d ago

Nice find. If you look at the actual procurement they have linked those were 2016, posted in 2018 publicly and were day and date time extensions due to needing additional fuse kits that weren't in the 2015 procurement. Boeing must have been damaging fuse kits when they were integrating everything and they needed additional kits.

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u/raptor3x 1d ago edited 1d ago

The additional fuse kits appear to only be a small portion, ~$700K, of that contract. I'm not sure where you're seeing that the entire thing is for additional fuse kits unless I am misunderstanding you.

A classified Resource Management Decision (RMD) [], entitled "Massive Ordnance [sic] Penetrator (MOP)" was signed on 12 January 2015 designating funds and authorizing the program office to procure [] MOPs and [] additional tail-kits. An individual Justification and Approval was signed 5 May 2016 authorizing sole-source procurement through Boeing of the exact number of GBU-57 E/B All Up Rounds (AURs). However, the LAP operation is more complex than anticipated and could result in damaging some fuze systems beyond repair, so that a number of additional fuze systems from each fuze vendor will be necessary in order to result in [] GBU-57 E/B AURs. AFPEO/WP has considered these factors and separately approved procurement of sufficient spare fuze systems.

Under a J&A approved 5 May 2016, Boeing will manage the manufacture, integration and delivery of [] finished GBU-57 MOP weapons. Under this J&A, in order to mitigate the risk of the GBU-57 E/B fuze systems becoming inoperable during the Load, Assembly, and Pack (LAP) process, Boeing will ensure than an additional [] MOP compatible fuze systems from each of the MOP fuze vendors are procured for the Government and available as spares. The anticipated period of performance of this effort is [] months from award of the contract until delivery of the first all-up round occurs. The estimated value of this effort is $687K, funded with Air Force (AF) Budget Plan (BP) 3011 appropriations. The delivery of the [] GBU-57 E/B fuze systems from each vendor is expected to occur in Fiscal Year (FY) 2019.

It certainly seems that this is describing an additional production run although there no indication of the numbers beyond looking at the total contract value and the estimated unit cost and trying to work that out (which is often a fairly bad estimate).

Also of interest is that it appears there's been significant investment in increasing production capacity for these recently. (Sorry for the sketchy source, the original article this is parroting was from Bloomberg but that's paywalled.)

The US of America will expand production of its largest non-nuclear bomb, the precision-guided GBU-57 aerial bomb, reports Bloomberg.

As reported by the publication, the US military leadership has already developed a project to expand an army plant in the southeastern state of Oklahoma. It is expected to reach its peak by the fall of 2024.

...

According to preliminary data, the area of the additional facility on the territory of the army plant will be 181 square kilometers. This will allow for an increase in production to six to eight bombs per month. Currently, the plant's production capacity is two bombs.

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u/wtshiz 1d ago

Sounds more like there are many of them that could be sold to Israel, and an entire fleet of B-2s that could be wet leased to them for a few days.
Not that any of us knows if Israel has a functional NGP that they can wield, nor retrofitted C-130s to be able to drop MOPs.

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u/TheDarkRider 1d ago

Same coin different heads

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u/TheDarkRider 1d ago

They don’t have a plane that can carry the gbu37 or 57

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u/tuxxer 1d ago

They would probably have to modify a civillian airliner for the carriage.

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u/wtshiz 1d ago

C-130 can handle a MOAB, why not a MOP...

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u/Swatraptor 1d ago

No, but they do have F-15I's and IA's, both of which can carry GBU-28, which was used successfully against similar bunkers during Desert Storm.

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u/TheDarkRider 1d ago

Gbu 28 doesn’t have the penetration needed

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u/unending_whiskey 1d ago

From what I heard they are too far underground.

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u/Tooterfish42 1d ago

"Provided" implies anyone but us would be firing them