Trump's MOAB threat could put Iran's deepest bunkers in America's crosshairs

Take President Donald Trumps threat on the MOAB seriously. The U.S. Air Forces GBU-43 Massive Ordnance Air Blast weapon, nicknamed the "mother of all bombs," could figure prominently in any new airstrike plans targeting Iran.

"The mother of all bombs is not nuclear," Trump said. "This is just an extremely large bomb. Its like a tiny , but the mother of all bombs is one big bomb, but its not nuclear."

"I wouldnt use nuclear. We dont have to," Trump said.

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Hes right. The U.S. has a range of precision weapons that can knock out any suspicious target in Iran, including the construction activity at Pickaxe mountain. Admiral Bradley Cooper, Commander, United States Central Command, has detailed knowledge of high-value Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps sites that could be MOAB targets.

President Trump has said he wont strike Iran prior to the mid-terms, but clearly he is looking at Central Commands strike briefing charts in great detail. And he wants Iran to know it.

Here are four reasons the MOAB is a formidable threat.

Trump ordered the first use of a MOAB in Afghanistan in April 2017

The MOAB was dropped on April 13, 2017, on a cave complex in Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan. "There was no surprise," then-Secretary of Defense James Mattis said of the MOAB. "The battle was going on, and we were going to use what was necessary to break ISIS," he added. Mattis said he wasnt going to waste time "digging into tunnels to count bodies"; CNN reported 94 ISIS fighters killed.

Too big for U.S. bombers

While Americas B-2, B-52 and B-1 bombers can easily carry the weight of the 21,000-lb. MOAB, the problem is the shape. The MOAB used in 2017 was too big to fit on the standard racks and rotary launchers in the bomber weapons bays. For the Afghanistan mission, the MOAB was loaded on a special cradle and slid out of the back ramp of an MC-130 while in flight. Dont worry about the MC-130s. Yes, the basic C-130 is a cargo plane, but the Special Operations versions like the MC-130 are adapted for clandestine missions. This is also where air dominance over Iran comes in handy. The initial weeks of Operation Epic Fury knocked out Irans Russian-built integrated air defenses. Subsequent strikes by CENTCOM have prevented Iran from reconstituting their air defenses. MC-130s on a MOAB mission might also get help with electronic warfare and other attack suppression from the Space Force, U.S. Air Force, and U.S. Navy carrier-based aircraft like the EA-18G, F-35C and E-2D.

MOAB is a precision weapon

The clue is the official designation of GBU-43 which stands for Guided Bomb Unit. Small drogue parachutes stabilize the MOAB upon release and then the satellite-guidance kit guides the bomb to the designated p