Why Israel wants US bunker busters to hit Iran’s Fordow nuclear site

US President Donald Trump says helium is inactive weighing his options regarding United States subject involution amid escalating hostilities betwixt Israel and Iran.

Standing connected the South Lawn of the White House connected Wednesday, Trump said, “The adjacent week is going to beryllium big,” adding that Iranian officials are anxious to negotiate. However, helium warned them that “it’s precise precocious to beryllium talking,” aft they reached retired to him.

Officials and experts person suggested that the US’s 30,000-pound (13,000kg) bunker buster weaponry is the lone limb susceptible of destroying the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant, a installation believed to beryllium cardinal to Tehran’s atomic programme and carved heavy into a mountain.

The United States is the lone state to person these bombs, which it delivers utilizing B-2 bombers. If deployed against Iran, it would correspond a large displacement from chiefly intercepting missiles connected Israel’s behalf to conducting progressive violative strikes against Iran.

What are bunker buster bombs?

“Bunker buster” is simply a wide word for bombs designed to destruct targets located heavy underground that accepted bombs cannot reach.

The US military’s astir almighty bunker buster is the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator. Weighing astir 30,000 pounds (13,600 kg), including a 2,700kg (6,000-pound) warhead, this precision-guided weaponry is made of high-strength alloy and built to penetrate up to 200 feet (61 metres) underground earlier exploding.

The B-2 Spirit, a US stealth bomber, is presently the lone craft designed to deploy the GBU-57 and tin transportation 2 bunker buster bombs astatine a time. The US Air Force says aggregate bombs tin beryllium dropped sequentially, either by the aforesaid craft oregon by several, allowing each onslaught to burrow deeper, amplifying the wide impact.

(Al Jazeera)

Israel besides operates US-made bunker busters, including the GBU-28 and BLU-109, which are typically dropped from combatant jets specified arsenic the F-15. These weapons, however, person a overmuch shallower penetration scope and are not susceptible of reaching utmost depths of fortified sites similar Iran’s Fordow atomic facility. In 2024, Israel reportedly utilized successive BLU-109 bombs to termination Hezbollah person Hassan Nasrallah successful his underground office successful Beirut.

How heavy is Iran’s Fordow atomic facility?

Iran’s Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant, located astir 95km (60 miles) southwest of Tehran, is built into the broadside of a mountain, reportedly up to 80-90 metres (260-300 feet) underground, to past aerial strikes and bunker buster attacks.

Construction of the Fordow installation is believed to person begun successful astir 2006, and it became operational successful 2009, the aforesaid twelvemonth Iran officially acknowledged it.

(Al Jazeera)

Under the 2015 Iran atomic deal, known arsenic the JCPOA, Iran agreed to halt enrichment astatine Fordow and person the tract into a probe centre. However, aft the US withdrew from the statement successful 2018, Iran resumed uranium enrichment astatine the facility. Iran has insisted its atomic programme is for civilian purposes.

Fordow is reportedly defended by Iranian and Russian surface-to-air rocket systems, though those defences whitethorn person already been targeted successful Israel’s ongoing strikes.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has framed the run arsenic a ngo to dismantle Iran’s rocket and atomic capabilities, describing them arsenic an existential threat. Officials person confirmed that Fordow is simply a cardinal target.

“This full cognition … truly has to beryllium completed with the elimination of Fordow,” said Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, successful an interrogation with Fox News.

Other atomic sites targeted

Israel is believed to person destroyed the above-ground conception of Iran’s uranium enrichment installation astatine Natanz, the country’s largest atomic site.

According to the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the resulting powerfulness nonaccomplishment whitethorn person besides caused harm to the underground enrichment halls astatine the facility.

(Al Jazeera)

Before and aft outer imagery reveals the grade of the harm astatine Natanz.

Israeli attacks person besides damaged the Isfahan enrichment installation successful cardinal Iran.

Potential atomic and chemic contamination

On Monday, Rafael Grossi, the caput of the UN atomic watchdog, said determination was a anticipation of some radiological and chemic contamination from the damaged Natanz site.

Speaking astatine an exigency IAEA league successful Vienna, Grossi said radiation levels stay mean extracurricular Iran’s Natanz and Isfahan atomic sites, some of which were deed successful Israeli strikes. However, helium warned that ongoing subject escalation increases the hazard of a radiological release.

Fordow is located astir 32 kilometres (20 miles) southbound of the metropolis of Qom, Iran’s seventh-largest metropolis with a colonisation of immoderate 1.4 cardinal and a large spiritual and governmental centre.

(Al Jazeera)