US Central Command said the US military has fired 5,000lb penetrator bombs on missile sites along Iran’s coastline.
The munitions, named by a government official as GBU-72 Advanced 5k Penetrator bombs, were first released in 2021.
The US released them over Iran in hopes of reaching ‘hardened, deeply buried goal challenges’ – namely, missile silos along the Strait of Hormuz.
The Air Force describes it as: ‘The weapon design and its projected effectiveness were developed using advanced modelling and simulation techniques and processes before the primary warhead was forged.
‘This can be a repeatable process for all future direct attack weapons. Lethality is anticipated to be substantially higher in comparison with similar legacy weapons just like the GBU-28, in line with James Culliton, GBU-72 program manager.’
The lethal weapons have only been utilized in combat just a few times – so how do they work?
Deadly ‘bunker busters’ explode deep underground
The GBU-72 Advanced 5k Penetrator bombs have been nicknamed ‘bunker busters’ for his or her capabilities.
The huge bombs are surrounded by steel, which allows the explosives to burrow deeply through the bottom and concrete bunkers, exploding once they reach a certain depth.
Casting manufactured from hardened ferro-cobalt alloy to survive impact, the warhead alone weighs 5,291 kilos and might enter through almost 200 feet of concrete.
The bomb utilized in Iran last summer was barely different, nevertheless – the GBU-57 30,000-pound precision-guided bomb was used to penetrate the online of underground bunkers where Iran carried out its nuclear programme.
Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency confirmed the Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz nuclear sites had been attacked through the summer 2025 conflict.
B-2 bombers are only utilized by the US military, and so they are the one aircraft able to carrying and delivering the penetrator bomb.
The bombs were dropped by B-2 Spirit planes and guided to their targets by GPS systems, reaching supersonic speed before impact.
Each penetrator from the bombs used last summer weighed 30,000 kilos.
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