Shipments of the 2,000 pound BLU-109 bunker buster bombs accompanied 15,000 bombs of other varieties and 57,000 artillery shells worth hundreds of millions of dollars, mostly via Air Force C-17 cargo planes, and continued in recent days, the WSJ reported, citing U.S. officials. At the same time, the Biden administration has increased pressure on Israel to certify that its targeting practices minimize civilian casualties.
“I made clear that after a pause, it was imperative that Israel put in place clear protections for civilians, and for sustaining humanitarian assistance going forward,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday while in Dubai, according to the WSJ.
Pentagon officials have declined to provide specifics on the record of the varieties and and quantity of weapons sent to Israel.
“Bunker busters” fall in a category of munitions the U.S. military has employed in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Somalia and Libya to attack large gatherings of enemy targets in mostly open environments, the WSJ reported. They earned their name by their ability to penetrate and destroy concrete fortifications.
In contrast, Israel’s operations in Gaza mostly involve ground fighting and airstrikes on buildings in densely populated urban environments. It may attempt to target Hamas’ vast network of underground tunnels with the BLU-109 bombs.
“They are kind of the weapons of choice for the fights we had in Afghanistan and Syria in open, non-urban areas,” said Mick Mulroy, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense and officer in the Marine Corps and CIA, told the WSJ. “The U.S. may use them in more urban areas, but first it would do a lot of target analysis to make sure the attack was proportional and based on military necessity.”
Other transfers include 5,000 Mk82 unguided bombs, more than 5,400 Mk84 bombs with 2,000 pound warheads, roughly 1,000 GBU-39 small diameter bombs and roughly 3,000 JDAMs, kits that can be added to unguided munitions to give them precision strike capabilities, the WSJ reported, citing an internal U.S. government list provided to the outlet.
Israel renewed strikes on Gaza early Friday as efforts to prolong a temporary ceasefire that began Nov. 24 collapsed. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel intended to continue the war until Hamas has been destroyed, according to NBC News.
The Pentagon announced deliveries of precision munitions, air defence, medical support and other equipment within days of Israel declaring war on Hamas in retaliation for brutal terrorist attacks. Deliveries flowed into Israel on an almost daily basis, the Pentagon said, mostly coming from already-planned transfers put on an accelerated track.
The Lockheed BLU-109/B Hard-target Warhead 2,000 pound BLU-109 bomb was specifically designed to defeat an enemy's most critical and hardened targets: secure command locations, protected weapon storage sites, and key transportation and communication resources. The BLU-109's advanced technology one-piece high-strength forged steel casing is one inch thick and can penetrate up to six feet of reinforced concrete. The weapon penetrates the target intact to get to the deep interior of hardened sites, where a delayed-action fuse detonates the 550 pounds of high explosive Tritonal, ensuring complete destruction of the location.
The BLU-109 warhead can be delivered as either a guided or unguided weapon. However, the BLU-109/B is usually mated with a laser guidance kit to form a GBU-24/A penetrator bomb.
The Ogden Air Logistics Center at Hill AFB is the Program Manager for all U.S. Air Force munitions, including the BLU-109 warhead and GBU-24 guided bomb.
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