This Saturday (21), websites specializing in air traffic reported that Several US Air Force B-2 bombers took off for the Pacificwhile President Donald Trump considers to attack Iran – the Republican agent gave a two -week deadline to decide on the issue, the White House said.
According to flight trackers, the B-2 departed from the Whiteman Air Base in Missouri, bound for Guam, an American territory in micronesia that houses military facilities.
American military and government sources heard by US press agencies, such as CNN and The New York Times newspaper, has rushed to clarify that the transfer of these aircraft does not necessarily imply that the Republican agent has already made a decision on attacking Iran, as the relocation of military assets is not uncommon.
However, the signage is noteworthy: since it started the offensive against Iran’s military and nuclear infrastructures on the 13th, Israel has already imposed heavy Losses on Tehran, but needs American aid to destroy The Fordow Uranium Enrichment Plantwhich is 90 meters below the ground.
According to the EFE agency, to eliminate Fordow and its centrifuges, it will be necessary to count on the top version of the GBU-28 bomb, the GBU-57/MOP, a monster of 13,600 pounds.
GBU means Guid Bomb Unit (guided pump unit) and MOP means Massive Ordnance penetrator (massive ammunition penetrator).
Currently, the GBU-57/MOP can only be used from the B-2 Spirit strategic bomber, although the US Air Force has also tested the bomb release from the classic B-52 bomber.
The B-2 Spirit, in service since 1997 and will soon be replaced by the B-21 Raider, can operate from the Whiteman Air Force base in Missouri or Diego Garcia Island in the Indian Ocean.
To protect Fordow from air strikes, Iran had the Russian anti-aircraft batteries S-300, one of the most advanced Russian arsenal’s earth-air missile systems. But analysts believe that Fordow has now lost this protection, which makes a bombing operation with the B-2 Spirit relatively easy for the US.
According to Israel’s defense forces (FDI), over 70% of Iran’s anti -aircraft batteries have been destroyed since last week.
The freedom of action of B-2 Spirit bombers, or B-52s, if the US decides to use another platform, would be critical to ensuring the destruction of Fordow, because although the GBU-57/MOP has a high destruction capacity, its success is not guaranteed, so that the Air Force would probably need to perform several consecutive attacks.
Jonathan Panikoff, a researcher at the American Think Tank Atlantic Council, said in an article that the United States should seek accurate and punctual attacks in Iran to avoid even more tensions climbing and that the conflict spreads through the Middle East.
“Bombarding what is left of the Iranian nuclear program, which Israel has no ability to destroy, especially fordoow, should be the only focus of US military action in Iran – and only if [o premiê israelense, Benjamin] Netanyahu agrees to end the war, limiting any ambitions that he may have related to the change of regime [iraniano]”Wrote Panikoff.
The expert stated that Iran will probably seek some retaliation, as it did after the first Trump administration killed Qase Soleimani, then head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Force QDS in 2020.
“But if Iran’s answer is as proportionally limited as it was at the time, it will pave a narrow way for the United States and Israel to declare Victoria and put the Middle East on a new and fundamentally different path, full of increasing opportunities,” Panikoff has projected.
