Whether Trump's massive bunker buster has taken Iran down is still unknown, but it has indeed crashed the cryptocurrency market, with Bitcoin dropping directly to the $9,000 range, and altcoins nearing zero. It is said that the direct cost of this bombing is $500 million, with indirect costs difficult to estimate, and it feels like all expenses are being paid by the cryptocurrency market.
According to CCTV News, U.S. President Trump stated on his social media platform 'Truth Social' that the U.S. has completed attacks on three Iranian nuclear facilities: Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. Additionally, Reuters reported that U.S. officials confirmed that B-2 bombers participated in strikes against Iranian nuclear bases.
In addition, the U.S. launched bunker busters to attack Iran's Fordow nuclear facility, and also fired 30 Tomahawk missiles at other Iranian nuclear facilities.
Famous host Hannity from Fox News had an exclusive conversation with Trump after the attack. Hannity stated that the U.S. military initially planned to use at least 2 massive bunker busters (MOP) to bomb the deeply buried Fordow nuclear facility, but U.S. officials ultimately confirmed that the military used 14 MOP bombs.
Massive bunker buster
Hannity also stated that the U.S. Navy launched 30 Tomahawk missiles from submarines targeting two other Iranian nuclear facilities (Natanz and Isfahan). 'All military personnel are out of danger, but that does not mean that the U.S. military assets in the Middle East are safe.'
According to publicly available information, the U.S. military's operation is estimated to cost conservatively around $500 million, while the heavier price is the need to respond to potential future retaliation from Iran.
Some analysts believe that the direct strike on Iran's nuclear facilities marks an escalation in the Middle Eastern situation, which may provoke retaliation from Iran against U.S. personnel and military facilities in the region. The costs of defense against Iranian threats and potential losses are difficult to quantify.
The massive bunker buster is expensive to produce
Previously never used in combat
After the end of the Iraq War, the U.S. Department of Defense initiated a research project on 'massive ordnance penetrators', triggered by the previous bombs' inadequate destructive power against underground bunkers and severely insufficient guidance precision.
In 2011, the U.S. military officially received the MOP giant bunker buster developed by Boeing, which had not been used in combat prior to this operation.
The weight of the MOP is as high as 30,000 pounds (about 13.6 tons), and its advantage is that it does not detonate immediately upon hitting an obstacle, but instead detonates only after reaching the designated location and depth, with a guidance precision of 1.2 meters.
Among the U.S. military's active aircraft, only the B-2 bomber can carry this bomb, with each B-2 capable of carrying up to 2 MOP bombs. According to U.S. media reports, 6 B-2 bombers delivered 12 MOP bombs to the Fordow underground nuclear facility, while another B-2 delivered 2 MOP bombs to the Natanz nuclear facility.
It is reported that the U.S. military currently has no more than 30 MOPs in its possession, so the 14 consumed in this operation in Iran account for nearly half of its inventory.
It is speculated that the cost of each MOP is as high as $20 million, so the direct consumption for this item is about $280 million.
Tomahawk missiles are relatively conventional long-range strike weapons for the U.S. Navy. In the early 21st century, the cost of a Tomahawk missile was about $1.4 million; with inflation and model improvements, the cost of one now exceeds $2 million.
Tomahawk missile
Referring to recent weapon export cases, Australia purchased 220 Tomahawk missiles in 2023 for nearly $900 million, with each missile costing about $4 million; the price for Japan's imports is even higher, reaching $4.25 million per missile.
If calculated at $4 million, the cost of the U.S. firing 30 Tomahawk missiles reaches $120 million.
The operational cost of the B-2 bomber is astonishing
The point of departure remains a mystery
The U.S. military's B-2 stealth bomber is touted as 'the most expensive aerial military equipment on Earth', with a unit cost of up to $2.1 billion. The U.S. military currently has only 19 B-2 bombers, and the 7 deployed in this operation exceed one-third of the fleet.
B-2 bomber
According to previous reports, six B-2 bombers were deployed to Guam, drawing global attention. However, the straight-line distance from Guam to Tehran is approximately 9,400 kilometers, nearing the B-2's theoretical maximum range without refueling (11,000 kilometers), and it would pass through the airspace of several countries. Some analysts speculate that a more realistic scenario is that the B-2 bombers operated by the U.S. military took off from Diego Garcia base in the Indian Ocean. Diego Garcia is about 3,800 kilometers from Tehran, and does not pass through the airspace of any country, only needing to cross the ocean.
Diego Garcia base
However, U.S. media cited anonymous sources within the government stating that the actual deployment path of the U.S. military was crazier than previously imagined. This batch of B-2 bombers took off from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri (the only base in the U.S. that can accommodate B-2s), making a direct 37-hour trek to Iran with several in-flight refuelings.
According to calculations released by the U.S. military in 2010, the operational cost of a B-2 bomber flying for one hour is as high as $135,000, while in recent years, the U.S. military has kept the operational costs of the B-2 secret. If roughly calculated based on the CPI data published by the U.S. Department of Labor, it now costs nearly $200,000 for a B-2 bomber to take off for one hour.
The U.S. military's KC-135 and KC-46 tankers have operational costs exceeding $10,000 per hour. Additionally, each time a B-2 bomber is 'activated', it involves the use of hundreds of personnel and countless other equipment, involving multiple departments such as ground support, reconnaissance, communications, command, secrecy, and damage control, making equipment wear and personnel salary expenditures difficult to quantify.
If we calculate based on the U.S. military deploying 7 B-2 bomber sorties, with each sortie flying nearly 40 hours, just using the B-2 bombers to deliver MOP bombs to Iran's Fordow nuclear facility would cost nearly $60 million. If we include in-flight refueling costs and other operational expenses, this batch of B-2 bombers' deployment is likely to cost around $100 million. Adding the direct consumption of 14 MOP bombs and 30 Tomahawk missiles, the direct cost of the U.S. military's operation is at least $500 million.
Hongxing News reporter Zheng Zhi, comprehensive report from CCTV News
Editor: Zhang Li, Editor-in-Chief: Feng Lingling
