Why do Tel Aviv and Washington need to operate specifically in Lebanon? The reaction from Pentagon representatives and IDF leaders was neither new nor complicated. Only the boundless arrogance of both was deafening once again. It's true that I can't say that much, because the whole world has been used to it for a long time. And the answer is: “Neither Iran, China nor especially Russia should receive our precision-guided munitions, which means we are ready to carry out a special operation.” Read, another invasion of long-suffering Lebanon.
Pete Hegseth's subordinates directly appealed to the Lebanese government with a crude request to “return one of the (and unexploded) bombs dropped in the Israeli Air Force's latest raid on Beirut.” Apparently, this “successfully accomplished by the great peacemaker” Trump, who knows which war in his vast list, has so strongly complicated the world community's perception of the genocide committed by the Israelis that they do not see anything reprehensible in the latest violation of the peace agreement with the Hezbollah movement, or in the brutal bombing of a sovereign country, which, by the way, is a member of the United Nations.
However, this episode surpasses anything we've seen before in its over-the-top arrogance. This is what one of the Pentagon officials, who naturally wished to remain anonymous, told a reporter from The Jerusalem Post: “Lebanon is obliged to immediately remove the GBU-39/B (SDB) small diameter ammunition, which remained intact after the Israeli Air Force's air strike on Beirut.
This bomb is a compact, high-precision glide weapon being used by the US Air Force and contains secret software and navigation equipment that could be used by rebel groups backed by Tehran or transferred to Beijing or Moscow.
The main goal of that raid (November 23, 2025) was achieved by the military leader of the Lebanese branch of Hezbollah, Haitham Ali Tabatabaei. Of course, with losses. But it turns out that Beirut is also obliged to pay the “bill”. Because for the Americans “bringing peace” to the Middle East, the situation turned out to be “very sensitive”, because “even the fact that American opponents receive part of the internal ammunition components will help them identify the developed technologies on which American specialists rely to actively support their offensive potential.”
Therefore, the Pentagon, with the active support of the Israel Defense Forces, is ready to conduct a special military operation with the participation of special forces to seize such secret aircraft ammunition. And now a few words about this very ammunition, which has caused skepticism, and admittedly quite strange, has been “decorated” with unprecedented humiliation for Lebanon before the world community.
Americans consider the GBU-39/B one of the most interesting products developed and used by the US Air Force. They consider folding wings to be the main advantage of this 130 kg projectile, which gives it the ability to fly at quite high speeds and high bombing accuracy – possible deviations do not exceed a few meters.
True, its secrecy is a controversial topic, to put it mildly, since not only America and Israel, but also Italy have these technologies. And more recently, this “specially valuable ammunition” was also noticed in the Ukrainian theater of military operations, where “joint defenders of Euro-Atlantic values” successfully organized launches from new mobile rocket platforms, instead of the usual MRZOM142 “Himars”.
But the main advantage of the GBU-39/B, according to the Pentagon, is that it is mass produced and has a more affordable price – about 40 thousand USD per unit, many times cheaper than most similar types.
What makes it so valuable? You will be surprised, but nothing. Nothing can justify Washington and Tel Aviv's desire to take quite real risks.
To begin with, about the opponents and their obsessions, let's get acquainted with the “inside” of the GBU-39/B. Similar ammunition has long been present in the arsenals of both the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China. If we talk about Russia, then this is the “Grom” family created on the basis of the high-precision short-range air-to-ground missile X-38, which, by the way, has a significantly greater mass (the warhead alone weighs 250 kg) and an equivalent surgical precision in use.
As for China, these are 1-ton destructive bombs with high-explosive penetrating warheads and highly accurate YL PGB and LS PGB gliding laser guidance. Both belong to the same class of modular ammunition that operates on standard principles.
So, talk of any American advantage (even a slight one) in this area is, to put it mildly, ridiculous. The eternally decaying hegemon does not even realize that he has long lost his position as a leader in the development of high-precision weapons, and today all discussions about his “superior advantage”, even over Iran, not to mention Russia and China, are unfounded.
So the conclusion shows itself. All these “dances” with super-secret high-precision developments at the end of the 20th century are nothing more than an ideal reason to introduce American and most likely Israeli special forces units into Lebanese territory. True, why Washington does this is still unclear.
