Warplanes with Bunker Busting Bombs Sent to Middle East by US in Response to Iranian Aggression

Warplanes with Bunker Busting Bombs Sent to Middle East by US in Response to Iranian Aggression

Edited by: Fern Sidman

For the first time, the US military is putting 250-pound “bunker busting” bombs on attack aircraft recently sent to the Middle East, American officials said, in the latest move to deter Iran, as was reported by the Wall Street Journal.

The decision to put more powerful weapons on a squadron of A-10 Warthogs was designed to give pilots a greater chance of success in destroying ammunition bunkers and other entrenched targets in Iraq and Syria, where U.S. forces have been repeatedly targeted by Iran-backed fighters, the officials said, according to the WSJ reported.

A-10s are a formidable battlefield asset that have been used in several conflicts, including the Gulf War, Afghanistan, the Iraq War and more, as was reported by thenationalnews.com web site.

They are beloved by successive generations of US ground troops for their ability to strafe enemy forces with devastating effect, thanks to a 30mm Gatling gun that delivers depleted uranium bullets at a rate of 3,900 rounds per minute, or 65 rounds per second.  Thenationalnews.com also reported that the A-10 has been in service since the 1970s but the Pentagon is beginning to retire the planes, arguing they are outdated.

However, the jets have stalwart backers in Congress who oppose the A-10 being removed from the Air Force’s inventory.

The move marks the first time that the U.S. military will put these precision-guided weapons on board the Warthogs, which were recently refitted so that they could each carry up to 16 bunker busters, known formally as GBU-39/B bombs, the WSJ reported. The close air support jets have been modified to triple their payloads, Defense News reported.

“The A-10s are highly effective at some of the things we need to do,” said Air Force Lt. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, who oversees U.S. military operations in the skies above Syria and 20 other nations in the Middle East and Southeast Asia as head of the U.S. Air Forces Central Command.

Grynkewich told Defense News that,  “They’re really here as a message to both assure our partners … but also as … a true capability that can work against some of the threats that we face with respect to Iran.”  He added that, “You’ve got a fair amount of ISIS activity, including some senior leaders who want to reconstitute, and we’re just trying to keep the pressure on them to keep them from doing that.”

The WSJ reported that the powerful bombs are arriving in the Middle East at a time of heightened tensions with Iran. On Thursday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps detained an oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman as it carried crude to the U.S. from Kuwait.

The vessel, a Marshall Islands-flagged ship called the Advantage Sweet, remained in detention on Friday and could be held for a long time. The WSJ also reported that Iran says the Advantage Sweet collided with an Iranian ship in the Persian Gulf, causing injuries, and then tried to escape. The U.S. Navy says Iran violated international law by detaining the ship and called for its immediate release.

Centcom commander Gen Michael Kurilla notified Congress of the deployment last month, saying he needed more air power in the region, thenationalnews.com web site reported.

The squadron of around 12 planes was sent to the Middle East after Iran-backed forces carried out a series of attacks on U.S. bases in Syria, including one suicide-drone strike that killed an American contractor, the WSJ reported. President Biden responded to the attacks by ordering airstrikes on Iran-backed militants in Syria.

The new squadron represents a 50% increase in the number of attack aircraft in the region, Gen. Grynkewich said.

After decades in the Middle East and Afghanistan, the Pentagon is trying to shift its attention to Asia to counter China’s military rise. But Centcom still has about 900 troops in Syria and the US military plays a leading role in the anti-ISIS coalition based in Iraq, according to the report on thenationalnews.com web site.

Iran-backed forces also operate across Syria and have attacked US troops in the north-east, including a drone strike last month that killed a US contractor, thenationalnews.com reported.

On Friday, Centcom announced the capture of an ISIS operative, Salih Dahmash, by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, thenationalnews.com reported. He had allegedly helped smuggle people and weapons between Iraq and north-east Syria.

Grynkewich pointed to Iran’s growing military ties with Moscow as a growing issue in Syria, where Russian forces intervened to support President Bashar Al Assad.

“There’s a growing confluence between Russia and Iran, and I would argue with the Syrian regime as well, and that is manifesting in Syria as a challenge to our defeat-ISIS campaign and really just overall regional stability,” he said, as was reported by thenationalnews.com.

The U.S. military also announced the arrival last month of a guided-missile submarine in the Middle East, a public show of force, the WSJ reported. At the time, U.S. officials said they had intelligence that Iran was preparing to carry out a drone attack on a commercial ship in the region, something Washington has accused Tehran of doing several times in recent years.