Bunker-Buster Bomb No Sure Way to Stop Iran If Talks Fail
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Two months ago, General Mark Welsh, the U.S. Air Force chief of staff, revealed that the 509th Bomb Wing’s B-2 bombers were now equipped to carry new 15-ton bunker-buster bombs developed with an eye on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
If negotiations in Vienna to curb Iran’s nuclear program fail, however, even an airstrike with the 30,000-pound Massive Ordnance Penetrator -- the largest non-nuclear bomb ever developed -- would delay Iran’s nuclear efforts by only a few years, according to U.S. defense officials and private analysts. Israeli forces could do far less, these experts say.