The United States should transfer Massive Ordnance Penetrators (MOP), otherwise known as “bunker busters,” to Israel, as well as planes that can launch them, in order to deter Iran’s nuclear program more effectively, U.S. Representatives Grace Meng (D – N.Y.) and Lee Zeldin (R – N.Y.) wrote in an op-ed in The New York Post Monday.
A longstanding component of America’s Iran policy has been a credible military threat to ensure that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon. Many contend that the credibility of this threat has waned, and that Iran is now more assured than ever that it will not be attacked. Providing Israel with a stronger capability to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities would help deter Iran from ever trying to break any agreement it may sign.
Transferring MOPs to Israel would also help assuage the concerns of Congress and our Middle East allies, who are wary of the emerging deal. President Obama will need to take measures to strengthen the security of our allies and ensure Congress that he is negotiating from a position of strength. Transferring MOPs to Israel would help the president achieve these objectives.
Because the MOPs are outside the scope of the negotiations, Iran is in no position to object to transferring them to the Israelis. Iran continues to expand Hezbollah’s arsenal, placing all of Israel’s population centers within range of Hezbollah rockets. Iran supports the Assad regime in Syria and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. It supports the Houthi rebels in Yemen, who have violently overthrown a democratically elected government. It propagates violence and terrorism throughout the Middle East.
Meng and Zeldin based their recommendation on a 2014 op-ed (Google link) written by Lt. Gen. David Deptula and Michael Makovsky for The Wall Street Journal. They explained that the MOP represent an upgrade over Israel’s current capabilities.
Israel has 2,000- and 5,000-pound bunker-buster bombs, some of which were delivered by the Obama administration. Iranian planners, however, might hope that these will prove insufficient to do major damage. The U.S. should remove such doubt by providing Israel with the capability to reach and destroy Iran’s most deeply buried nuclear sites. The U.S. could do this by providing an appropriate number of GBU-57 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs, known as the Massive Ordnance Penetrator or MOP, and several B-52 bombers.
The Pentagon has developed the MOP bomb specifically for destroying hardened targets. It can penetrate as deeply as 200 feet underground before detonating, more than enough capability to do significant damage to Iran’s nuclear program. There are no legal or policy limitations on selling MOPs to Israel, and with an operational stockpile at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, the U.S. has enough in its arsenal to share.
While Israel does not have the aircraft capable of carrying and launching the MOP, Deptula and Makovsky wrote that there are “no legal or policy impediments” to transferring a number of B-52H bombers, currently in storage, to Israel.
Meng and Zeldin also argued for strengthening America’s Gulf allies in a way that allows Israel to maintain its qualitative military edge.
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