Former Obama adviser: Send
B-52 bombers to Israel
In wake of Iran nuclear deal,
Israel’s security should be bolstered with means of delivering bunker-busting
munitions, says Dennis Ross.
A B-52 Stratofortress surrounded by its munitions.
Photo by Wikimedia Commons
A former top adviser to
United States President Barack Obama has called on Washington to provide Israel
with B-52 bombers, following the nuclear agreement reached last week between
Iran and six world powers, according to the Defense News website.
“To have a credible military
option, it’s not enough to say all options are on the table. We have to be much
more blunt,” said Dennis Ross, a former senior diplomat and adviser to several
presidents, in an interview on Thursday.
The B-52 Stratofortress bomber is outfitted to deliver
30,000-pound (15 ton) GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators, also known as
bunker-busters. Professional opinion holds that such weapons would be needed to
destroy Iran’s heavily-fortified, underground nuclear facilities.
Delivery of the bombers to Israel would bolster its
deterrence and the credibility of its so-called military option, should Iran
opt out of its commitments in the agreement reached last week, Ross said.
“Deterrence becomes a very important question as we
move toward implementation,” Ross said.
Israel has never publicly requested B-52s.
“Intuitively, I don’t believe this is the right answer or even relevant to the
Israel Air Force,” said Giora Romm, a former deputy commander of the Israel Air
Force. “It’s like buying a pair of shoes many sizes too large.”
Also interviewed on Thursday, Romm said that
receiving B-52s would necessitate building new runways and establishing an
entirely new concept of operations and training that would be enormously
expensive and of limited operational value.
Eitan Ben-Eliahu, a former commander of the IAF, said
that Israel would benefit more from U.S. assistance in expanding existing or
planned attack inventories and accelerated funding for new missile systems and
Iron Dome batteries.
The B-52s, Ben-Eliahu pointed out, could easily be
downed by Russian S300s, which are scheduled for deployment in Iran, and would
trigger a conventional arms race in the region. It would also prompt Russia to
sell “10 times more S300s to Iran,” he said. “And by the way, they’d be justified
in doing so.”
Ross’ remarks were the first public endorsement of an
idea that has been bandied about for years. Language proposing delivery of
aerial refueling tankers and bunker-buster munitions to Israel was included in the U.S.-Israel enhanced
Security Cooperation Act of 2012.
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