US President Donald Trump says he’s nonetheless weighing his choices relating to United States navy intervention amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Iran.
Standing on the South Garden of the White Home on Wednesday, Trump stated, “The following week goes to be huge,” including that Iranian officers are keen to barter. Nonetheless, he warned them that “it’s very late to be speaking,” after they reached out to him.
Officers and consultants have advised that the US’s 30,000-pound (13,000kg) bunker buster bomb is the one weapon able to destroying the Fordow Gasoline Enrichment Plant, a facility believed to be central to Tehran’s nuclear programme and carved deep right into a mountain.
America is the one nation to own these bombs, which it delivers utilizing B-2 bombers. If deployed in opposition to Iran, it will symbolize a significant shift from primarily intercepting missiles on Israel’s behalf to conducting energetic offensive strikes in opposition to Iran.
What are bunker buster bombs?
“Bunker buster” is a normal time period for bombs designed to destroy targets positioned deep underground that standard bombs can not attain.
The US navy’s strongest bunker buster is the GBU-57 Huge Ordnance Penetrator. Weighing about 30,000 kilos (13,600 kg), together with a 2,700kg (6,000-pound) warhead, this precision-guided bomb is manufactured from high-strength metal and constructed to penetrate as much as 200 toes (61 metres) underground earlier than exploding.
The B-2 Spirit, a US stealth bomber, is at present the one plane designed to deploy the GBU-57 and may carry two bunker buster bombs at a time. The US Air Drive says a number of bombs could be dropped sequentially, both by the identical plane or by a number of, permitting every strike to burrow deeper, amplifying the general impression.
Israel additionally operates US-made bunker busters, together with the GBU-28 and BLU-109, that are sometimes dropped from fighter jets such because the F-15. These weapons, nonetheless, have a a lot shallower penetration vary and should not able to reaching excessive depths of fortified websites like Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility. In 2024, Israel reportedly used successive BLU-109 bombs to kill Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in his underground headquarters in Beirut.
How deep is Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility?
Iran’s Fordow Gasoline Enrichment Plant, positioned about 95km (60 miles) southwest of Tehran, is constructed into the aspect of a mountain, reportedly as much as 80-90 metres (260-300 toes) underground, to outlive air strikes and bunker buster assaults.
Development of the Fordow facility is believed to have begun in about 2006, and it grew to become operational in 2009, the identical 12 months Iran formally acknowledged it.
Below the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, generally known as the JCPOA, Iran agreed to halt enrichment at Fordow and convert the location right into a analysis centre. Nonetheless, after the US withdrew from the settlement in 2018, Iran resumed uranium enrichment on the facility. Iran has insisted its nuclear programme is for civilian functions.
Fordow is reportedly defended by Iranian and Russian surface-to-air missile techniques, although these defences might have already been focused in Israel’s ongoing strikes.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has framed the marketing campaign as a mission to dismantle Iran’s missile and nuclear capabilities, describing them as an existential risk. Officers have confirmed that Fordow is a key goal.
“This whole operation … actually must be accomplished with the elimination of Fordow,” stated Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the USA, in an interview with Fox Information.
Different nuclear websites focused
Israel is believed to have destroyed the above-ground part of Iran’s uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, the nation’s largest nuclear web site.
In accordance with the United Nations’ Worldwide Atomic Vitality Company (IAEA), the ensuing energy loss might have additionally prompted injury to the underground enrichment halls on the facility.
Earlier than and after satellite tv for pc imagery reveals the extent of the injury at Natanz.
Israeli assaults have additionally broken the Isfahan enrichment facility in central Iran.
Potential nuclear and chemical contamination
On Monday, Rafael Grossi, the pinnacle of the UN nuclear watchdog, stated there was a chance of each radiological and chemical contamination from the broken Natanz web site.
Talking at an emergency IAEA session in Vienna, Grossi stated radiation ranges stay regular exterior Iran’s Natanz and Isfahan nuclear websites, each of which have been hit in Israeli strikes. Nonetheless, he warned that ongoing navy escalation will increase the danger of a radiological launch.
Fordow is positioned about 32 kilometres (20 miles) south of town of Qom, Iran’s seventh-largest metropolis with a inhabitants of some 1.4 million and a significant spiritual and political centre.
