U.S. military planners have included the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) bomb as an option in contingency plans for potential strikes inside Iran, according to a CNN report on Thursday, October 15. The report, citing multiple unnamed U.S. officials, comes as Iranian officials have stated their intent to combine military and diplomatic actions to achieve their objectives.
The Department of Defense has not issued a public statement confirming the report.
The GBU-43/B, often nicknamed the “mother of all bombs,” is a 21,600-pound, GPS-guided air-burst weapon. It is one of the largest non-nuclear bombs in the United States’ arsenal and is designed to affect targets across a wide surface area. The weapon has been used once in combat, in a 2017 strike against an ISIS-Khorasan cave complex in Afghanistan.
The contingency planning was reported following a statement from President Donald Trump on October 8, in which he said he would not authorize a resumption of military strikes on Iran before the U.S. midterm elections scheduled for November 3.
The discussions of military options follow several recent events in the region. On Wednesday, a container ship sank in the Strait of Hormuz. Additionally, Houthi forces have conducted attacks in Saudi Arabia, which Saudi officials have described as fatal. Citing separate sources, The Wall Street Journal reported that Iran has been strengthening its air defenses around its nuclear and energy facilities.
In a televised address on Wednesday night, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf stated that Iran would use a combination of military capabilities, negotiations, and regional leverage to press its demands. According to reports from Iranian state-affiliated media, Ghalibaf said Tehran’s goal is to prevent adversaries from achieving their objectives through military means.
Iranian officials have previously stated their demands include the lifting of U.S. sanctions and a naval blockade, as well as the complete withdrawal of American military forces from the region.
