The US has used 5,000-pound (2,270-kilogram) GBU-72 bombs against deeply buried Iranian missile sites along the Strait of Hormuz.screenshot x
The US armed forces say they have used bunker-busting bombs to attack specially protected Iranian missile positions on the Strait of Hormuz.
Mar 18, 2026, 11:04 amMar 18, 2026, 11:04 am
“Several” of the bombs, each weighing almost 2.3 tons, were “successfully used,” said the US Middle East Regional Command (Centcom).
Hours ago, US forces successfully employed multiple 5,000-pound deep penetrator munitions on hardened Iranian missile sites along Iran’s coastline near the Strait of Hormuz. The Iranian anti-ship cruise missiles in these sites posed a risk to international shipping in the… pic.twitter.com/hgCSFH0cqO
— US Central Command (@CENTCOM) March 17, 2026
According to a US official, these are GBU-72 bunker-busting bombs CNN said. This bomb was first dropped by US aircraft in 2021. The GBU-72 was developed “to overcome the challenges posed by hardened, deeply buried targets,” said an Air Force statement in 2021. In 2023, soldiers described the ammunition in a video on Facebook as “something that cannot be compared to anything we currently have.”
The special ammunition with particularly penetrating power is used, for example, in attacks on particularly reinforced facilities or underground bunkers. According to the US military, the attack targeted positions with cruise missiles that were intended to be used against ships. They posed “a threat to shipping traffic in the strait.”
In June 2025, the USA had already used bunker buster bombs to destroy the underground uranium enrichment facilities in Iran. At that time, however, it was the GBU-57, the most powerful non-nuclear bomb in the world. It weighs around 13,600 kilograms and can only be dropped by a single aircraft, the American B2 stealth bomber. The GBU-72, on the other hand, weighs 2270 kilograms. Unlike the GBU-57, it can be dropped from multiple carrier aircraft.
The Strait of Hormuz between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman is an important artery for international trade in oil and liquefied natural gas. As a result of the American-Israeli attacks in Iran, Tehran has repeatedly threatened to attack ships passing there. Shipping traffic in the strait has virtually come to a standstill since the war began around two and a half weeks ago.
(hkl, with material from the news agencies sda/dpa)