White House prepares plans to use 'mother of all bombs' on Iran: Report

NEW: White House reportedly preparing plans to use the 'mother of all bombs' on Iran, according to a report.

The White House is reportedly drawing up plans to drop the mother of all bombs on Iran.

That's according to a new report tonight. The weapon in question is the GBU-43, the largest non-nuclear bomb in the American arsenal, eleven tons of explosive built for one job, destroying targets buried deep underground. It has been used in combat exactly once, against ISIS tunnels in Afghanistan back in 2017.

Let's be careful with the word reportedly. Preparing plans is what the Pentagon does for a living, it has plans for everything. But leaking that you're preparing this particular plan, for this particular country, is a message in itself. The obvious targets would be Iran's hardened nuclear sites, the ones conventional strikes can't reach.

So far, no confirmation from the White House, no comment from Tehran. A plan on a shelf is not a strike. But somebody wanted this on the front page tonight, and that choice was deliberate.

This is Dave King, reporting for HIT.