The U.S. could join Israel's war with Iran to deploy this 30,000-pound bomb
Why it matters: The U.S. alone possesses the world's most powerful non-nuclear bomb — and it's uniquely capable of targeting key Iranian facilities that Israel can't hit with its own weapons.
Zoom in: The bomb in question is 30,000 pounds and precision-guided: the GBU-57 E/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator, also known as the "MOP."
In 2015, the U.S. Air Force said that the MOP was "designed to accomplish a difficult, complicated mission of reaching and destroying our adversaries' weapons of mass destruction located in well protected facilities."
It's also known as the "bunker-buster."
And bunker-busting is exactly what Israel's aim is.
Iran's Fordow facility is built into a mountain and hundreds of feet underground — the kind of fortress the MOP is designed to penetrate.
If the facility remains accessible and intact, Iran's nuclear program — which Israel is determined to eliminate — could actually accelerate.
"The entire operation ... really has to be completed with the elimination of Fordow," Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter told Fox News on Friday.
Zoom out: That's where U.S. assistance — and the MOP — would come in. The bombs Israel has access to aren't nearly as strong.
The U.S. would likely use B-2 Spirit stealth bombers to drop the bombs.
Our thought bubble: A B-2 bomber, which is capable of quietly flying extraordinary distances, dropping a MOP is about as potent as it gets — shy of nuclear power, Axios' future of defense reporter Colin Demarest said.
Particularly relevant here is a description from the Pentagon's independent weapons tester: The MOP is "designed to attack hard and deeply buried targets (HDBTs) such as bunkers and tunnels."
What they're saying: The use of the MOP would be unprecedented.
"To destroy Fordow, which the MOP was explicitly designed for, would probably take at least two bombs, each hitting exactly the same spot," Robert Pape, a US military historian and author of Bombing to Win, told the Financial Times on Wednesday.
"That may be fine, and I am sure the US Air Force has the technical capabilities. But it's never been done before in a real war."
The latest: President Trump said Wednesday that Iran still wants to negotiate with the U.S. and proposed sending a delegation to the White House, but that it was getting "very late" for talks and he might soon authorize strikes.
A U.S. attack would likely spark retaliation on U.S. bases and other targets in the region, potentially drawing the U.S. into a protracted conflict with Iran.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declined to provide details of U.S. military plans in Iran during an open-door Senate hearing on Wednesday. He said only that if and when Trump orders a strike, the Pentagon "will be ready to execute it."
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