Israel’s ambassador to the United States says only the US Air Force has the weapon that can destroy Iran’s deeply buried nuclear sites. But analysts are cautious that there’s no guarantee even that bomb could do the job.
The Fordow plant is buried deep in the mountains near Qom, in northern Iran. Its exact depth is not publicly known, but some estimates place it at 80 to 90 meters deep.
“For Fordow to be taken out by a bomb from the sky, the only country in the world that has that bomb is the United States,” Ambassador Yechiel Leiter said.
The bomb Leiter is referring to the GBU-57/B – also known as the Massive Ordnance Penetrator.
Also known as a “bunker buster,” it is a 30,000-pound GPS-guided munition with a 5,740-pound high explosive warhead that’s so heavy it can only be dropped from the Air Force’s B-2 bombers.
“The warhead case is made from a special high performance steel alloy,” enabling it to burrow deeply into the ground and destroy hardened bunkers and tunnels, according to a US military fact sheet.
A Royal United Services Institute report said the GBU-57 can penetrate to a depth of 61 meters (200 feet). That would be about 20 meters short of Iran’s Fordow facility, according to the report’s estimates.
“The GBU-57/B would likely require multiple impacts at the same aiming point to have a good chance of penetrating the facility,” the report said.
Other analysts agree, saying, if the US were to try to hit Fordow, it probably couldn’t be done with one bomb.
“I would bank on repeated strikes against Fordow,” CNN military analyst Cedric Leighton, a former US Air Force colonel, said.
“Repeated strikes might work, but unsure,” said Peter Layton, a former Royal Australian Air Force officer now a fellow at the Griffith Asia Institute, adding there would be “no guarantee of success or ability to prove (Fordow) been taken out” if it were hit.
