American fighter planes seem to use advanced precision bombs “Stormbreaker” in combat against the Houthis, part of the intense bombing campaign against the rebels supported by Iran.
An image of what looked like an unploded half -buried bomb in the sand began to circulate Thursday on social networks. The open source intelligence accounts have geoloquéed the image in the South Shabwah of Yemen Shabwah.
Trevor Ball, a former technician for the elimination of explosive ammunition from the American army, identified ammunition such as the Stormbreaker GBU-53 / B, a relatively new ammunition in the American arsenal. He told Business Insider that the discovery of the bomb, apparently entirely intact, highlights a problem: he could fall into bad hands.
The GBU-53 / B, known as Bomb Bomb Increment II of small diameter, is an air-launched weapon with precision advice and pop-out wings. The 200-pound bomb is manufactured by the American defense entrepreneur Raytheon, now RTX, and can be released from fighter planes based on carriers such as F / A-18E / F Super Hornet.
The weapon can be used against displaced and stationary targets and is able to operate in bad time, depending on the command of naval air systems. The bomb can also receive updated target coordinates in half-vol.
In October 2023, the navy declared an early operational capacity for the Stormbreaker and said that its Super Hornets would be the first platforms to transport the bomb.
US Central Command, which oversees the operations of the Middle East, images published last month seeming to show the story, among other ammunition on the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman, which was at the forefront of the Houthi conflict.
In a screen group of this video on March 21, the Stormbreaker bomb can be seen with the yellow band at the bottom of the USS Harry S. Truman frame. Central American order
The war zone, which reported on Friday on the discovery of Stormbreaker in Yemen, spotted evidence last month that the navy had used the ammunition for the first time in combat.
The image of the apparent story seems to be the clearest sign that the United States uses this weapon against Houthis. The fact that ammunition is fully intact suggests that the air defenses have not withdrawn it. A defense official refused to answer BI questions on the incident or provide other details.
Ball, a researcher at Argent Research Services, said that the risk in this situation is that Iran, which has long supported Houthis, could get their hands on the Stormbreaker.
“Iranians are known for weapons systems in reverse engineering and the creation of their own versions,” said Ball. “Faster Iran can acquire weapons to exploit compared to the United States, the more Iran can try to reduce gaps in their capacities.”
This could even benefit Russia, which has experienced increasingly close defense with Iran since Moscow launched its large -scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The F / A-18E Super Hornet, based on carriers, can transport Stormbreaker bombs. Photo of the American Navy
Ball explained that although the Stormbreaker would have been found in an area of Yemen that the Houthis do not control, “this highlights the risk of unplodced ammunition found in Iranian possession”, especially since there are probably highly classified components in ammunition.
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“The more the scale of air strikes and use are important, the more likely it becomes,” said Ball, adding that the same risk applies to the AGM-158, that the United States has used the Houthis.
AGA-158, or Air Standoff missile on the surface (JASSM), is a long-furtive cruise missile developed by Lockheed Martin. The JASSM and the Stormbreaker are compensation weapons, which means that planes can release them from a distance and avoid the Houthi aerial defenses, unlike the conventional bombs fallen directly on a target.
The United States also seems to be using the AGM-154 Joint Howoff Arme (JSOW), among other advanced ammunition, against Houthis.
The United States has bombed the Houthis for six consecutive weeks to bring the rebels to stop its attacks on the Red Sea. The soldiers have publicly revealed very few details on the intense campaign since the beginnings, although he recognized by hitting a major oil in Houthi last week. Dozens of people were reportedly killed during the attack.
Defense secretary Pete Hegseth said on Thursday that the United States had attacked hundreds of Houthi goals since the start of the campaign and decimated by his management. However, analysts have questioned that strikes will effectively eliminate the capacities of rebels; The previous stikers did not do so. Barely a few days ago, for example, they pulled missiles on Israel.
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