The B-2 is the only aircraft that can carry the US's 15-ton GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator, the largest US bunker buster, and one of the most powerful non-nuclear bombs.
Israel has no aircraft that can deploy this MOAB
A military effort to stop Iran from building a nuclear weapon requires heavy bombs to strike its bunkers. That's where the US B-2 Spirit comes in.
www.businessinsider.com
Israel needs US stealth bombers if Trump decides to destroy Iran's nuclear sites
- Israel would need US help if it set out to destroy Iran's underground nuclear sites.
- The operation would require repeated cruise missile strikes and heavy, bunker-busting bombs.
- There are limits to what the US and Israel could accomplish in a short air campaign.
Iran can enrich enough uranium for a nuclear weapon within weeks. The options to stop Iran from getting a bomb, if it so chooses, are through a
nuclear deal like the one President Donald Trump withdrew from in 2018 or with overwhelming military force.
"There are two ways Iran can be handled, militarily or you can make a deal. I would prefer to make a deal," Trump said in
a March 6 interview with Fox News. The US, he said, has "a situation with Iran that's going to happen very soon, very, very soon."
Early signs of a deal were inauspicious. Trump dialed up the pressure on Iran after US strikes on the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen over the weekend, warning in a Monday Truth Social post that "every shot fired by the Houthis will be looked upon, from this point forward, as being a shot fired from the weapons and leadership of IRAN."
Israel could attempt pre-emptive strikes, but they would likely need US airpower in what would be a major escalation if they aimed to demolish Iran's underground facilities for weapons-grade uranium, according to military analysts.
To wipe out Iran's nuclear facilities, US and Israel would need to carry out repeated strikes with stand-off weapons like cruise missiles, Ryan Bohl, a senior Middle East and North Africa analyst at the risk intelligence company RANE, told Business Insider.
Such strikes could also require the
Northrop B-2 Spirit stealth bomber. The B-2 is the only aircraft that can carry the US's 15-ton GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator, the largest US bunker buster, and one of the most powerful non-nuclear bombs. A B-2 notably bombed hardened underground weapon sites belonging to the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen in October.
"It would be a major milestone in the history of warfare should we see a joint Israeli-US strike on Iran," Bohl said. "It would give us insight into how such (American-made) systems might also perform against, say, Russia and China, whose systems are in some ways similar to that of Iran's."
The United Nations Security Council discussed Iran's enrichment of uranium near weapons-grade level in a closed meeting on Wednesday. The US accused Iran of
"flagrantly" defying the council over its rapid uranium enrichment.
Amid the back and forth between the Trump administration and Iran, a
US Air Force B-52 Stratofortess bomber drilled with Israeli Air Force F-35 stealth jets and F-15 fighters. Both air forces have drilled on numerous occasions in recent years in preparation for a possible attack against Iran.
The largest-ever exercise was
Juniper Oak in January 2023, when American and Israeli F-35 stealth jets, drones, and US strategic bombers dropped over 180,000 pounds of live munitions.
"Juniper Oak gave us insight into how a maximum escalation scenario might play out with joint Israel-US operations," Bohl said.