The United States is dropping its newest and second-most-powerful bunker-busting GBU-72 bomb on fortified targets in Iran, the first time the weapon has been used in combat, according to multiple reports.
Without officially identifying the bomb, U.S. Central Command, in a March 17 post on X, said military forces “successfully employed multiple 5,000-pound deep penetrator munitions on hardened Iranian missile sites.”
Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Mark Weatherington later told CNN the munitions were Guided Bomb Unit-72 Advanced 5K Penetrators. The bombs were dropped on sites along the Iranian coastline near the Strait of Hormuz.
The GBU-72 replaces an older bomb version designed to penetrate deeply buried, reinforced underground targets such as missile sites, command centers, nuclear facilities, and others while minimizing damage above ground.
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