Key facts

Since the United States and Israel began airstrikes against Iran last week, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) said in a statement on March 4 that it had so far dropped 5,000 bombs on Iran. In this airstrike, a new type of bomb that has never been used publicly by the Israeli military was confirmed, attracting attention.

On March 3, the Israeli Air Force released three images, saying they were photos of fighter jets participating in an airstrike on Iran. Weapons experts analyzed that the bombs contained incendiary ingredients and were designed to destroy chemical and biological weapons facilities.

Why is this important?

The weapon confirmed this time has great military significance in that it is not a simple high-explosive bomb but a special-purpose tactical weapon. In the released photo, a 2,000-pound aircraft bomb is equipped with a precision guidance device, Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM), and a red band surrounds the front of the bomb. According to military standard practice, red indicates incendiary function and yellow indicates high explosive effect.

N.R., director of weapons intelligence consulting firm ARES. “The combination of yellow and red bands indicates that it is equipped with both a high-explosive and incendiary warhead, which is consistent with the BLU-119/B CrashPAD (Chemical Agent Rapid Disarming Destruction),” Dr. Jenzen-Jones analyzed. Frederik Grass, an explosive remnants of warhead (ERW) expert, also explained that both the United States and Israel use red markings to indicate incendiary warheads or their effects.

The analysis that this weapon is intended to destroy chemical and biological weapons (CBW) facilities suggests a precision strike strategy targeting Iran's nuclear and military facilities. This goes beyond the simple destruction of military facilities and is linked to the strategic goal of preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

When did this trend start?

This is not the first time the Israeli Air Force has released images of weapons with special markings. At the beginning of the 2023 Gaza War, the Israeli Air Force posted a photo of an Apache attack helicopter equipped with a Hellfire missile with a red band, then deleted it and replaced it with a photo without the missile. At the time, there was speculation online that it could be an incendiary or AGM-114N, a variant of a thermobaric bomb.

The M825A1 155mm white phosphorus shell used by Israel is also designed to create a smoke screen, and is marked with red and yellow bands on the front. On the other hand, for weapons without an incendiary function, such as the Delilah cruise missile, the marking system is differentiated, such as using a light red band around the fuel tank.

In this airstrike, the U.S. Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) was put into service for the first time, and it was confirmed that a Tomahawk missile variant previously unknown to the public was also used. This shows that the United States and Israel mobilized all of their latest weapons systems in this operation.

Future outlook [AI analysis]

The actual use of this special bomb is likely to have an impact on the future situation in the Middle East in many aspects.

From a military perspective, the deployment of special bombs to destroy chemical and biological weapons facilities shows that Israel and the United States recognize Iran's unconventional weapons capabilities as a major threat. Additional use of similar special-purpose weapons is expected in the future, which is likely to lead to Iran's strengthening of its strategy of dispersing and concealing military facilities.

From a diplomatic perspective, the use of incendiary weapons could attract the attention of the international community regarding concerns of civilian casualties. There is a 1980 Protocol III to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) on the use of incendiary weapons, but their use against military targets is not prohibited. However, it may face humanitarian criticism when used near civilian areas.

On a technical level, this strike demonstrates the depth of sharing advanced weapons technology between the United States and Israel. Applying a special warhead to the combination of the MK 80 series bomb body and the JDAM guidance system is an approach that maximizes the utility of the existing platform, and is likely to lead to the development of various special-purpose variants in the future.

Currently, information on the scale of civilian damage caused by airstrikes and the specific target of the attack is limited, and independent verification of this is necessary.