The United States military has drawn up new strike plans against Iran that include the possible use of the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb — the so-called “mother of all bombs” — against Iranian energy infrastructure and nuclear sites should President Donald Trump order combat operations to resume, according to US officials cited in reports. Deploying the largest non-nuclear bomb in the US arsenal would mark a sharp escalation, even though officials cited in the reports doubt how effective it would be against hardened underground targets.
Strike plans target energy and nuclear sites
The options were described as preparations for possible further strikes either before or after the November midterm elections, according to the officials. They include a possible strike on an underground nuclear facility known as Pickaxe Mountain, where Washington believes parts of Iran’s nuclear programme are stored. One account said the president had directed officials to draw up additional strike packages covering a significant share of Iran’s energy infrastructure.
Some officials have also discussed a sequence in which the US would strike and then quickly withdraw its forces from the region — language in one plan described an attack coming before the withdrawal of American forces from the Central Command area of responsibility, reports said. The proposals come amid an eight-month conflict that began in February 2026, even as a month of escalating attacks across the Middle East has raised the stakes of any new operation.
Doubts, deterrence and the Montana rally
The MOAB is an air-blast weapon designed for wide-area effects rather than a dedicated bunker-buster, and several officials familiar with the planning discussions questioned whether it could penetrate deeply enough to destroy underground facilities. The reporting added that its large blast radius could endanger civilians if the bomb were used near populated areas.
The 21,600-pound bomb was developed during the Iraq War as a psychological weapon, and its only combat use came in 2017 in Afghanistan — it has never been used against Iran. The president himself has sent mixed signals about the war’s future: late on Wednesday he told reporters in Montana that it would end “very soon,” even as he questioned which Iranian figures Washington was even dealing with in talks to end it.
“They don’t have a navy. They don’t have an air force. Their army is decimated. Their leaders are gone,” he said at the rally, adding: “I should have probably left their leaders because I don’t know who the hell we’re negotiating with.” That uncertainty underlines the central difficulty: military plans keep growing even as the political path to ending the war remains undefined. The original reporting drew on accounts from multiple officials familiar with the planning.
