US EditionThis Is the Bunker-Buster Israel Needs From the US to Quickly Destroy Fordow
IRAN, JUN 18 – The U.S. Air Force's 30,000-pound GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator bomb is the only weapon capable of hitting Iran's deeply buried Fordow nuclear site, officials say.
- The escalating Israel-Iran conflict raised focus on the U.S. GBU-57/B bomb as the only weapon able to destroy Iran's Fordow nuclear facility.
- Tensions escalated after the United States pulled out of the nuclear deal in 2018, prompting Iran to restart uranium enrichment operations at sites such as Natanz.
- The Fordow site lies around 300 feet underground, shielded by a mountain and reinforced concrete, making it unreachable to standard Israeli weapons.
- The GBU-57/B, a 30,000-pound bunker buster deliverable only by U.S. B-2 bombers, can penetrate roughly 200 feet of rock, but multiple strikes may be required to destroy Fordow.
- President Trump declined to confirm strikes but noted the situation changed significantly, while UN watchdog Rafael Grossi warned of possible radiological contamination from ongoing damage at Natanz.
54 Articles
54 Articles
According to the photographs taken by the satellites, the central part of the facilities of Fordow, one of the key complexes of the Iranian nuclear program, has not undergone major changes in the last 20 years. Located about a hundred kilometers south-west of Tehran, next to the sacred city of Qom, Fordow encloses behind a fenced perimeter one of the best preserved jewels of the Iranian uranium enrichment machine, a priority objective of Israel’…
The device weighs 13 tons and can pierce 60 meters of concrete. It is indicated as the only one capable of destroying Fordow's nuclear laboratories. But the previous ones push to doubt its effectiveness
The GBU-57A/B is the only device that can reach targets more than 80 meters underground.
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