Why Israel Doesn't Want America's Newest Bunker-Buster Bomb
Some in Congress are keen to share the latest bunker-busting technology, but Israel is skeptical.
Sept. 22, 2015 | 1:48 p.m. EDT
By: Julian Pecquet, Congressional Correspondent for Al-Monitor
Al-Monitor
Talk is heating up in Congress and the Pentagon about whether to share America’s massive new bunker-busting bomb as a warning to Iran, but Israel remains cool to the idea.
The proposal is expected to come up during next month’s visit to Washington by Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon as well as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Nov. 9 meeting at the White House. Interviews with current and former top-ranking Israeli military officials, however, suggest a distinct lack of enthusiasm for a cumbersome super-weapon of dubious military value.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks in a meeting with members of Iran's Experts Assembly in Tehran, Iran, in this picture released by official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader on Thursday, Sept. 3, 2015.
“This idea is irrelevant for Israel,” a senior Israeli officer told Al-Monitor. “It is way beyond our means [and] not worth the means, money and effort. We are not capable of maintaining and sustaining it.”
Israeli military experts and former officials are equally skeptical.
They point out that Israel does not possess the heavy bombers — B-2s or B-52s — required to deliver the 15-ton Massive Ordnance Penetrator, or GBU-57. And they say only one air base, Nevatim, has runways that could conceivably be upgraded to handle such flights.
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http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/09/22/us-offer-of-anti-iran-bomb-lands-as-a-dud-in-israel
