Iran – Israel War: US Uses “Bunker Buster” Bombs to Hit Fordo Nuclear Facilities
Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, June 22: In inserting itself into Israel’s war against Iran, Washington unleashed its massive “bunker-buster” bombs on Iran’s Fordow nuclear fuel enrichment plant among others.
Those bombs are widely seen as the best chance of damaging or destroying Fordo, built deep into a mountain and untouched during Israel’s weeklong offensive. A US official confirmed their use in Sunday’s attack.
The U.S. is the only military capable of dropping the weapons, and the movement of B2 stealth bombers toward Asia on Saturday had signalled possible activity by the US. Israeli leaders had made no secret of their hopes that President Donald Trump would join their week-old war against Iran, though they had also suggested they had backup plans for destroying the site.
It remained unclear early Sunday how much damage had been inflicted upon Fordo. The mission could have wide-ranging ramifications, including jeopardising any chance of Iran engaging in Mr Trump’s desired talks on its nuclear programme and dragging the US into another Mideast war.
“Bunker buster” is a broad term used to describe bombs that are designed to penetrate deep below the surface before exploding. In this case, it refers to the latest GBU-57 A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator bomb in the American arsenal. The roughly 30,000 pound (13,600 kilogramme precision-guided bomb is designed to attack deeply buried and hardened bunkers and tunnels, according to the US Air Force.
It’s believed to be able to penetrate about 60 metres below the surface before exploding, and the bombs can be dropped one after another, effectively drilling deeper and deeper with each successive blast. It was not immediately known how many were used in the Sunday morning strike.
The bomb carries a conventional warhead, but the International Atomic Energy Agency has confirmed that Iran is producing highly enriched uranium at Fordo, raising the possibility that nuclear material could be released into the area if the GBU-57 A/B were used to hit the facility. However, Israeli strikes at another Iranian nuclear site, Natanz, on a centrifuge site have caused contamination only at the site itself, not the surrounding area, the IAEA has said. US warplanes also hit Natanz.
Fordow is Iran’s second nuclear enrichment facility after Natanz, its main facility, which already has been targeted by Israeli airstrikes. The IAEA says it believes those strikes have had “direct impacts” on the facility’s underground centrifuge halls.
Fordow is smaller than Natanz, and is built into the side of a mountain near the city of Qom, about 95 kilometres southwest of Tehran. Construction is believed to have started around 2006 and it became first operational in 2009 — the same year Tehran publicly acknowledged its existence.
In addition to being an estimated 80 metres under rock and soil, the site is reportedly protected by Iranian and Russian surface-to-air missile systems. Those air defences, however, likely have already been struck in the Israeli campaign, which claims to have knocked out most of Iran’s air defences.
Still, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the goal of attacking Iran was to eliminate its missile and nuclear programme, which he described as an existential threat to Israel, and officials have said Fordo was part of that plan. “This entire operation … really has to be completed with the elimination of Fordo,” Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the U.S., had said.
In theory, the GBU-57 A/B could be dropped by any bomber capable of carrying the weight, but at the moment the US has only configured and programmed its B-2 Spirit stealth bomber to deliver the bomb, according to the Air Force. The B-2 is only flown by the Air Force, and is produced by Northrop Grumman
According to the manufacturer, the B-2 can carry a payload of 40,000 pounds (18,000 kilograms) but the U.S. Air Force has said it has successfully tested the B-2 loaded with two GBU-57 A/B bunker busters — a total weight of some 60,000 pounds (27,200 kilograms).
The strategic long-range heavy bomber has a range of about 11,000 kilometres without refuelling and 18,500 kilometres with one refuelling, and can reach any point in the world within hours, according to Northrop Grumman.
At the G7 meeting in Canada, Mr Trump was asked what it would take for Washington to become involved militarily and he said: “I don’t want to talk about that.” Then on Thursday, Mr Trump said he would decide within “two weeks” whether to get involved to give another chance to the possibility of negotiations with Iran over its nuclear programme. In the end, it took just two days to decide.
A day after Mr Trump bashed the Nobel authorities for not acknowledging his anti-war efforts, he made the US carry out precision airstrikes on the three nuclear facilities in Iran.
Hassan Abedini, deputy political head of Iran’s state broadcaster, said Iran had evacuated the three sites some time ago. “The enriched uranium reserves had been transferred from the nuclear centres and there are no materials left there that, if targeted, would cause radiation and be harmful to our compatriots.”
The entire Fordo plant is underneath the mountain site; there are no overt structures or chimneys because the whole nuclear reactor is underground, which is why the US had to penetrate into it with bunker-buster weaponry. Mr Trump said six bunker-buster bombs were dropped on Fordo, while 30 Tomahawk missiles were fired against other nuclear sites. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said Iran has enriched Uranium up to 83.7 per cent purity at the Fordo facility. A total of 90 per cent purity is needed to make nuclear bombs.
Meanwhile, Iran’s state television warned Trump that every American citizen or military personnel in West Asia was now a “target,” after the US launched “successful” airstrikes on three nuclear sites in Iran. “The US has committed a crime against Iran by violating Iran’s airspace. It has no place in the West Asian region. Mr President of the United States, you started it and we will end it,” said the Iranian broadcaster, while displaying a graphic of US bases in the region.
