Warships, explosive drones and stealth bombers: The high-tech weapons and hardware the US is using to attack Iran

Before the US-Israeli strikes on Iran, Washington assembled its largest force and some of its most powerful weaponry in the Middle East in decades. President Donald Trump had warned the US was “locked and loaded”—and Saturday’s strikes that killed Iran’s supreme leader gave that force a destructive purpose. US Central Command (CENTCOM) on Sunday released a list of the US weaponry that has been used so far in the war with Iran. Here’s a look at the assets used so far in what the Pentagon calls “Operation Epic Fury”: B-2 s

Stealth bombers: The bat-winged bombers, priced at more than a billion dollars each, are the most potent platform in the US Air Force. Powered by four jet engines, the B-2 can carry conventional or nuclear weapons, with intercontinental range and aerial refueling. Piloted by a crew of two, the B-2s usually fly from their home at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, as they did last year when they struck Iranian nuclear complexes in a 34-hour round-trip mission. That mission last June was undertaken by seven of the 19 B-2s in the fleet, with others used for a feint trip to Hawaii. They used the biggest of the US conventional bombs – the 30,000-pound massive ordnance penetrator – to attack three Iranian nuclear sites. This time they used 2,000-pound bombs to hit Iranian ballistic missile installations, CENTCOM said. 

LUCAS one-way drones: Operation Epic Fury marks the first use of the drones in combat for the US, according to CENTCOM. The drone unit – Task Force Scorpion Strike (TFSS) – was activated in the Middle East late last year, a CENTCOM statement said. “TFSS is designed to quickly deliver low cost and effective drone capabilities into the hands of warfighters,” the statement said. The Low-cost Unmanned Combat Attack System (LUCAS) is essentially a knock off of the Iranian-designed Shahed 136 drones that Russia has used in large numbers in its war on Ukraine. “These low-cost drones, modeled after Iran’s Shahed drones, are now delivering American-made retribution,” CENTCOM said in a social media post.