United States would like to provide additional bunker-buster bombs GBU-31 to Israel 0202121

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World Air Force News - Israel
 
 
 
United States would like to provide additional bunker-buster bombs GBU-31 to Israel
 
A bipartisan policy group of United States called for providing Israel with 200 additional bunker-buster bombs GBU-31 to increase the credibility of a military strike aimed at thwarting Iran’s nuclear program. The proposal is part of a report issued today by the Bipartisan Policy Center’s National Security Project, a nonprofit research group in Washington.
     
A bipartisan policy group of United States called for providing Israel with 200 additional bunker-buster bombs to increase the credibility of a military strike aimed at thwarting Iran’s nuclear program. The proposal is part of a report issued today by the Bipartisan Policy Center’s National Security Project, a nonprofit research group in Washington.
A pair of Joint Direct Attack Munitions GBU-31 bombs stands by near the flight line at Al Asad, Iraq, Nov. 7, 2004, before being loaded onto Marine F/A-18D Hornet fighter aircraft supporting operations in Fallujah.

     

The group, led by former Democratic Senator Charles Robb of Virginia and retired General Charles Wald, a former deputy commander of U.S. European Command, called for providing Israel 200 GBU-31 bunker-buster bombs and two or three KC-135 aerial refueling tankers. Israel already has about a dozen of the tankers needed to enable Israeli warplanes to strike targets in Iran, according to the report.

The GBU8-31 Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) is a tail kit which converts free fall unguided bombs into precision-guided weapons. The tail section contains a GPS/INS guidance system that guides the JDAM bomb through the selected target.

The GBU-31 bomb can use specific warheads to destroy bunkers and hardened targets.

“The pressure on Iran to negotiate in good faith will be maximized to the extent Iran believes that not just the United States, but also Israel, is capable of and prepared to deliver a crippling blow to its nuclear program,” the group said.

A more credible military threat from Israel is required, because Iran “could have the capacity to produce enough highly enriched uranium for a nuclear device in as little as two months” and “develop nuclear weapons capability” this year, according to the report.

“This program is the most immediate national-security threat to the United States,” Robb said in presenting the report at a news conference.

“While we do not advocate an Israeli military strike, we believe a more credible Israeli threat can only increase the pressure on Iran to negotiate,” Wald said in a written statement.