Six American B-2 stealth bombers on Saturday took off from Missouri's Whiteman Air Force Base, and are predicted to be enroute to a US Air Force base in Guam, a US island territory in Micronesia, located in the Western Pacific Ocean, according to flight tracking data and air traffic control sources.
These aircraft were accompanied by four Boeing KC-46 Pegasus refuelling planes, two of which had already refuelled the bombers over the Pacific Ocean.
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A Fox News report speculates that the bombers might have been cleared for flying without full fuel tanks, due to a heavy onboard payload, which could most likely be bunker-buster bombs.
As the name suggests, the only weapon capable of doing deep damage to underground bunkers like Iran's Fordow facility would be the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP), a 13.6-tonne explosive, commonly called a “bunker buster” bomb.
This bunker-buster can penetrate over 200ft deep, but has not been used to attack such a site before, casting doubt over its effectiveness, but the Pentagon is said to have assured US President Donald Trump that it would work.
However, America's usage of the bomb on Iran would be seen as a major escalation of the Israel-Iran conflict, which is nearing its tenth day. Israel has also reportedly considered attacking the Fordow facility, despite not having the requisite firepower for it, in order to "avoid losing its current momentum", as a result of which they have urged the US to join them.
This escalatory move closer to the Middle East comes amid Trump's two-week period—in which final attempts at nuclear negotiations with Iran were to be made before the US bombed them.
So far, Europe-mediated efforts at bringing the US and Iran together for direct talks have fallen flat, as Tehran refuses negotiations amid Israeli offensives. Senior Tehran officials have even agreed to some curbs on their nuclear enrichment, but not a complete stop to their nuclear programme.
As the conflict escalates rapidly, so has Trump's views on its resolution since it began: from enthusiastic support for Israel's attacks on Iran to a hopeful call for nuclear negotiations to a lack of hope in resolving the conflict because Israel was “very hard to stop”.
