Israeli needs U.S. B-52 bombers that can carry “bunker buster” bombs in order to attack Iran if is about to developed a nuclear weapon under the camouflage of the ObamaDeal, according to an Israel strategic expert now living in the United States.
Dr. Ehud Eilam, a former private contractor for the Defense Ministry and who has written a book on the “next war: between Israel and Egypt, wrote in Israel Defense that the United States should either attack Iran or give the green light to Israel to do so if Iran cheats on the agreement.
He maintains that Israel’s F-16 warplanes cannot do the job because they cannot carry 30,000-pound buster bombs being developed by the United States.
The Israeli Air Force has been training with the F-16 and F-15 aircraft for years in simulated attacks on Iran, which would require re-refueling.
Israel’s current stockpile of smaller bunker bombs may not be able to smash through nuclear sites protected by thick cement and buried underground, Dr. Eilam wrote.
He said Israel needs the American upgraded Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP), commonly called a bunker buster.
Dr. Eilam added:
Israel’s fighter-bombers…are too small to carry the MOP. The United States could give its Israeli ally the B-52 Stratofortress bombers, capable of carrying up to 32,000 kg of weapons….
Israeli air and ground crews should be sent now to the United States, to study how to operate both the MOP bomb and the B-52 bomber. The IAF does not possess heavy bombers like the B-52. The last time the IAF had similar weapon systems was in the 1950s, when it used a handful of B-17 bombers….
The Israeli personal would learn the B-52 as fast as they can. A special crash course should be created for them so they could return to Israel, with the B-52, as early as possible. This process might last up to a year, but it might end much sooner.
Israel used American fighter planes to bomb the Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1991.
If Iran is suspected of getting its hands within in arm’s reach of a nuclear weapon, Israel could strike again – with U.S. weapons – first by attacking key Iranian bases with F-16s , jamming Iranian radar and then deploying the B-52s to bomb nuclear sites.
Perhaps more important than carrying out a strike would be Iran’s knowledge that Israel has the capability to do so.
The biggest deterrent to an Iranian nuclear weapon might not be ObamaDeal but rather an overt Israeli capability to strike.