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US drops 5,000-pound GBU-72 Advanced Penetrator near the Strait of Hormuz

On Mar. 17, 2026 during Operation Epic Fury, the US undertook a high-profile strike mission on Iranian missile launch sites along the Strait of Hormuz by using some of the most powerful conventional bombs in its arsenal, the GBU-72 Advanced 5K Penetrator 5,000-pound bunker buster. The bombs targeted ‘hardened’ pads firing anti-ship cruise missiles at commercial vessels and oil tankers in the Hormuz, CENTCOM said on social media.

‘Hours ago, U.S. forces successfully employed multiple 5,000-pound deep penetrator munitions on hardened Iranian missile sites along Iran’s coastline near the Strait of Hormuz. The Iranian anti-ship cruise missiles in these sites posed a risk to international shipping in the strait,’ CENTCOM said.

Bunker busters

There are thousands of military facilities around the world that defy conventional attack. Caves in Afghanistan burrowed into mountainsides, and immense concrete bunkers lie buried deep in the sand in Iraq. These hardened facilities house command centers, ammunition depots and research labs that are either of strategic importance or vital to waging war. Because they are underground, they are hard to find and extremely difficult to strike.

The US military has developed several different weapons to attack these underground fortresses. Known as bunker busters, these bombs penetrate deep into the earth or right through a dozen feet of reinforced concrete before exploding. These bombs have made it possible to reach and destroy facilities that would have been impossible to attack otherwise.

GBU-72

The GBU-72 Advanced 5K Penetrator 5,000-pound bunker buster was developed to overcome hardened deeply buried target challenges and designed for both fighter and bomber aircraft. The weapon design and its projected effectiveness were developed using advanced modeling and simulation techniques and processes before the first warhead was forged. This is a repeatable process for all future direct attack weapons. Lethality is expected to be substantially higher compared to similar legacy weapons like the GBU-28.

While each bomb reportedly cost around $288,000, they are still less powerful than the 30,000-pound GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) used last June by USAF B-2 Spirit stealth bombers during operation Midnight Hammer conducted against Iranian nuclear program.

As previously reported, the GBU-72 was first tested at the Eglin Air Force Base (AFB) range, by a 96th Test Wing F-15E Strike Eagle that released a sample of the Advanced 5K Penetrator at 35,000 feet on Oct. 7, 2021.

The test series, planned by the 780th Test Squadron and flow by the 40th Flight Test Squadron, according to Times of India also validated a modified tail kit originally designed for a modified tail kit originally designed for a 2,000-pound bomb, ensuring the GBU-72 could be safely deployed from fighter and bomber aircraft.

Photo credit: U.S. Air Force