Armchair theory is that the US large platform bombers will be used to credibly threaten repeated bunker buster hits on Fordow nuclear site. This could pressure Iran to surrender its entire nuclear program including that site.

Currently Israel doesn't have the capability by itself to destroy the site but US bombers possibly could.

This is what boggles the mind for me. He has this miniscule unknowable opportunity to get the door open, and jump from the plane at just the right time.

He had to hit the sweetspot combo of low altitude and airspeed that doesn't cause him to die upon hitting the ground, but results in him being far enough from the blast of the aircraft itself impacting the ground. Its gotta be a fraction of a second window of time. He is literally one of the luckiest people in aviation accident history.

Some have theorized the tires disrupt object recognition in aerial imagery analysis (and possibly munitions or drone targeting). Obviously that didn't work here as the targets were already known and visually confirmed.

Practically not that much, but the point is to inflict huge monetary costs and erode public support among Russians to continue the conflict. So from that perspective this is a pretty good bargaining chip going into further negotiations.

WTF is wrong with people.