Subject: The cost of friends in high places
The day after Pakistan nominated American president Trump for tghe Nobel Peace Price, they castigated him for attacking Iran.

In an era of budget-wrestling, I was wondering what the cost of an evening of muscle-flexing using the US's 17 ton bunker-busting bombs was.

Number of MOP Bombs Produced:
• As of November 2015, the US Air Force had contracted Boeing to produce at least 20 GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators (MOPs).
• Some reports indicate around 30 might be in the US arsenal, but this is an estimate.
• In April 2011, eight MOPs plus supporting equipment were ordered for $28 million.
• There's no public information available about orders or deliveries since 2015.
Cost of Each MOP Bomb:
• The GBU-57 MOP is estimated to cost around $3.5 million per unit to manufacture.
• The development costs for the program ranged from $400 million to $500 million.
• Defense contracts for MOP production have been worth tens of millions of dollars.
• For example, in 2021, updated contracts for MOP production were worth over $77 million.
• One source quotes the GBU-57 cost at $20 million per bomb, but this may include development costs, and the manufacturing cost per unit is lower.
So, the cost of the 14 bombs the US used to attack Iran were worth a bit shy of $40M – though the replacement cost is likely higher.
In the meantime, the inventory reduction has reduced their deterrence/useful value to half what it was.

The 14 Tomahawk missiles used to attack Isfahan have a replacement cost (according to Raytheon) of $2.4M each or about another $35M
At least seven B2 bombers (at a cost of a couple of billion bucks each) were used on the mission to bomb Iran at a likely cost (including refueling) at “tens of million” of dollars each – so we/’ll round that cost off to another $175M for the mission.
So, we are up to a quarter of a billion dollars so far (or the same as a Musk campaign contribution) for the tab on the evening, so far.
Add to that the mission included a total of 125 planes, 75 precision guided missiles and an unknown number of ships and other resources and pretty soon you are talking about real money.

Of course, the above doesn’t include consequential future costs caused by retaliations in both directions.

Jeff