U.S. Arms Warplanes With More Powerful Bombs

"The U.S. military is for the first time 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.

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.

The move marks the first time the U.S. military will put these precision-guided weapons on board the Warthogs, which recently were refitted so they could each carry up to 16 bunker busters, known formally as GBU-39/B bombs.

"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.

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.

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.

The Pentagon sent the Warthog squadron to the Middle East last month after Iran-backed forces carried out attacks on U.S. bases in Syria. President Biden responded by ordering airstrikes on Iran-backed militants in Syria.

Moving the Warthogs into the Middle East was part of a broader effort to beef up the American military presence amid rising concerns about attacks by Iran and its militant allies across the region.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry didn't respond to a request to comment." [1]

1. World News: U.S. Arms Warplanes With More Powerful Bombs
Nissenbaum, Dion.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 29 Apr 2023: A.7.