Us Strike On Iran: US hits Iran near Strait of Hormuz with 5,000-pound 'bunker buster' bomb — what makes this high-cost weapon stand out

"US forces successfully employed multiple 5,000-pound deep penetrator munitions on hardened Iranian missile sites along Iran’s coastline near the Strait of Hormuz," CENTCOM said in a statement on X. The 5,000-pound bombs used in the strike were the GBU-72 Advanced 5K Penetrator, a weapon first deployed in 2021 and designed specifically to penetrate hardened, deeply buried targets. While each bomb reportedly cost around $288,000, they are still less powerful than the 30,000-pound GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator used in prior US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites.

• Test series of this magnitude are never successful because of a single person or organisation," said Ronald Forch, a 780th TS programming engineer.
• In October 2021, an F-15E Strike Eagle released a GBU-72 at 35,000 feet over Eglin Air Force Base in Florida.
• The test series, planned by the 780th Test Squadron and flown by the 40th Flight Test Squadron, included the first-ever flight, load, and release of the 5,000-pound weapon.

Watch next: These trials also validated a modified tail kit originally designed for a 2,000-pound bomb, ensuring the GBU-72 could be safely deployed from fighter and bomber aircraft.Ground tests at Eglin Air Force Base involved the largest open-air detonation ever conducted at the range, with the warhead surrounded by blast sensors and fragment-counting equipment to assess lethality.