The Trump administration is preparing to sell 60,000 heavy bombs to Israel in a deal valued at $2.8 billion, according to reports. The majority of the cost will be covered by the US Foreign Military Financing scheme, under which Washington uses taxpayer funds to pay for American-made weapons and military equipment supplied to Israel.
The administration has not officially confirmed the sale. A senior administration official said "all foreign arms sales are moving through the appropriate process," but declined to comment on pending transactions. A State Department spokesperson stated that "as a matter of policy, the Department does not confirm or comment on proposed arms sales until they have been formally notified to Congress." Sources report, however, that Congress has been informally notified.
The package is reported to include 60,000 warheads across three types: 20,000 MK-84s, 20,000 BLU-117s, and 20,000 I-2000 Penetrators.
The MK-84 is the largest bomb in the Mark 80 series. It is an unguided, 2,000-pound (907kg) general-purpose bomb designed for maximum blast and fragmentation against buildings and moderately protected targets. It can destroy buildings and kill or injure people hundreds of metres from the point of impact.
The BLU-117 is also a 2,000-pound (907kg) general-purpose bomb, similar in appearance to the MK-84 but with a different explosive filler. It can be fitted with precision-guidance kits and features a thermal protective coating designed for safer storage, particularly for use by the US Navy.
The I-2000 Penetrator, also known as a "bunker buster," is a roughly 2,000-pound-class hard-target penetrator designed to punch through hardened structures before detonating. Its casing is substantially thicker and harder than that of the MK-84.
According to the Project on Defense Alternatives, a 2,000-pound blast will severely damage, injure, or kill everything and everyone within 35 metres (115 feet). On average, such a bomb carves out a crater 50 feet (15 metres) across and 16 feet (5 metres) deep.
Israel has used 2,000-pound-class bombs for at least four decades. In 1981, the country used such a bomb during Operation Opera, an air strike that destroyed an unfinished Iraqi nuclear reactor near Baghdad. The following year, Israel dropped these bombs in Lebanon and Syria, resulting in significant civilian casualties.
In 2024, then-President Joe Biden's administration paused the delivery of some 2,000-pound-class bombs to Israel amid growing international criticism over the high number of civilians killed in attacks. President Donald Trump ended the pause upon returning to office and bypassed the standard congressional review process to approve a nearly $3 billion arms sale to Israel that included more than 35,500 of these bombs. In January of this year, Washington approved a further arms package worth $6.67 billion.
The latest reported sale is described as one of the largest US munitions packages to Israel. It comes amid ongoing conflict in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, as well as a broader depletion of US munitions stockpiles, a situation sources say has been worsened by the conflict in Ukraine.
