US military draws up plans to hit Iran with 'Mother of All Bombs' as Trump weighs major escalation
Donald Trump, who told supporters at a midterm rally that government leakers "should be shot," claims a pre-strike intelligence leak forced him to delay Operation Midnight Hammer by two days.A GBU-43/B MOAB — the military's most powerful non-nuclear weapon — which Pentagon planners have proposed deploying against Iran's suspected underground nuclear facility at Pickaxe Mountain.A GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb — the so-called "mother of all bombs" — which CNN reports the US military has drawn up plans to drop on Iran's nuclear sites.IRGC and Basij paramilitary forces parade through central Tehran. Pentagon planners warn the MOAB's vast blast radius raises serious civilian casualty concerns if deployed near populated Iranian energy sites.
The US military has drawn up strike plans that could see its largest non-nuclear weapon, the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb — the MOAB, or 'Mother of All Bombs' — deployed against Iranian energy infrastructure and nuclear sites if Trump orders combat to resume. The plans were reportedly developed as Trump searches for a 'definitive' act to end a war that has ground to an impasse eight months after it began. Trump's approval is waning ahead of November midterm elections, and Iran now holds unprecedented influence over the Strait of Hormuz.
Targets reportedly include Pickaxe Mountain, a suspected underground nuclear facility Trump has repeatedly threatened, though officials doubt the MOAB can penetrate its granite depths.
The 21,600lb GPS-guided bomb has only been used in combat once — against an ISIS tunnel network in Afghanistan in 2017 — and experts warn it was never designed as a deep-penetration warhead.
The MOAB's real value may reportedly be psychological: a show of force short of full-scale combat to pressure a regime that has so far refused to bend to Washington's demands.
