The B-2 can be equipped to carry America's 30,000-pound GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator, designed to destroy targets deep underground.

Air traffic control communications indicated that several B-2 aircraft — the planes that could be equipped to carry the 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs that Mr. Trump is considering deploying against Iran's underground nuclear facilities in Fordo — had taken off from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. Missouri.

Attention turned to Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, which is the home to all 19 of the B-2 bomber fleet, and whether they might be launched for a nonstop flight to Iran that would require multiple mid-air refuelings.