US Air Force Chief of Staff General Norton Schwartz says the military is prepared for a possible military offensive against Iran over the country’s nuclear energy program.
“We have an operational capability and you wouldn’t want to be there when we used it,” he said when asked about a 30,000-pound Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) bomb.
The general, however, refused to comment if the MOP bomb could reach underground nuclear sites in Iran.
“Not to say that we can’t continue to make improvements and we are,” he said on Wednesday.
“The bottom line is we have a capability but we’re not sitting on our hands, we’ll continue to improve it over time,” Schwartz added.
The US and Israeli officials have intensified anti-Iran war rhetoric in recent months to put more pressure on the country over its peaceful nuclear energy program.
Asked about whether Iranian nuclear sites are immune to US air power, Schwartz said, “It goes without saying that strike is about physics. The deeper you go the harder it gets.”
The general noted that the US arsenal “is not an inconsequential capability,” saying that the outcome of any preemptive attack would depend on the goal of the strike.
“What is the objective? Is it to eliminate, is to delay, is to complicate? I mean what is the national security objective. That is sort of the imminent argument on all of this,” he said.
The US, Israel and some of their allies accuse Tehran of pursuing military objectives in its nuclear energy program, using this pretext to impose sanctions against Iran and threaten the country with military attack.
Iran is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency and therefore entitled to develop and acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.