U.S.-led aircraft used the GBU-28 Paveway III during the opening October 2001 air campaign in Afghanistan, chiefly against cave and hardened mountain targets associated with al-Qaeda and Taliban forces.
| Claim | Sources |
|---|---|
| U.S.-led forces used GBU-28 bombs in Afghanistan during the opening October 2001 air campaign. | Sources: RAND Operation Enduring Freedom Air Power, The War Zone GBU-72 Bunker Buster |
| The documented target set was cave or hardened mountain targets associated with al-Qaeda and Taliban forces. | |
| The public sources support early-war use, not recurring use across the full 2001-2021 conflict. | Sources: RAND Operation Enduring Freedom Air Power, The War Zone GBU-72 Bunker Buster |
Timeline
U.S. and British forces began air strikes against Taliban and al-Qaeda targets in Afghanistan.
Sources: CFR U.S. War in Afghanistan Timeline
RAND's study places GBU-28 attacks on al-Qaeda training camps and mountain cave complexes during the fifth consecutive day of the air campaign.
RAND's air-power study of Operation Enduring Freedom identifies GBU-28 use in Afghanistan during the fifth day of the U.S.-led air campaign, when strikes were directed against al-Qaeda training camps and mountain cave complexes.
A later War Zone retrospective on U.S. bunker-buster development also identifies GBU-28 employment during the early stages of the Afghanistan intervention, consistent with the RAND account of early hard-target use.
Sources: RAND Operation Enduring Freedom Air Power, The War Zone GBU-72 Bunker Buster
Operation Enduring Freedom began on October 7, 2001, with U.S. and British air strikes against Taliban and al-Qaeda targets in Afghanistan. The GBU-28 appears in the early air campaign record within days of those opening strikes.
RAND places GBU-28 attacks against cave complexes during the fifth day of the air campaign. The public sources support early-war use, but they do not establish a repeated pattern across later phases of the 2001-2021 conflict.
Sources: CFR U.S. War in Afghanistan Timeline, RAND Operation Enduring Freedom Air Power, The War Zone GBU-72 Bunker Buster
The GBU-28's documented Afghanistan role was not broad tactical bombing. It was a specialized hard-target munition used by U.S.-led forces against cave and underground or hardened targets in the first phase of the war, when air power was focused on Taliban command, air-defense, training, and al-Qaeda infrastructure.
Air & Space Forces Magazine describes the GBU-28 as a laser-guided, 5,000-pound-class penetrating bomb with a 4,400-pound-class warhead and later GPS/INS-aided variants. In Afghanistan, the sources connect that hard-target role to mountain cave complexes rather than to later post-2015 operations.
The available public record supports U.S.-led employment during the October 2001 campaign. It does not establish a recurring Afghanistan use pattern across the full 2001-2021 war, nor does it identify Taliban or Afghan government operation of the weapon.
Sources: Air & Space Forces GBU-24/28 Paveway III, RAND Operation Enduring Freedom Air Power, The War Zone GBU-72 Bunker Buster
