What is a bunker buster bomb? US weapon might be key to destroying Iran’s nuclear websites | EUROtoday

As Israel launches its unprecedented army effort to eradicate Tehran’s nuclear programme by drive, specialists recommend solely the US has the weapons able to doing so.

Since prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu introduced “Operation Rising Lion” final Friday, Israel has struck close to a number of nuclear services, together with at Natanz and Isfahan, whereas assassinating a number of Iran’s prime army commanders and nuclear scientists.

But whereas the UN’s nuclear watchdog assessed on Monday that Israel has broken websites above floor at Natanz and Isfahan, and doubtlessly underground centrifuges on the former web site, Iran’s underground services at Isfahan and – crucially – the Fordow enrichment plant are believed to stay unaffected.

What are bunker buster bombs?

Fordow, Iran’s most fortified nuclear web site, was clandestinely constructed deep inside a mountain to guard it from assault. In March 2023, the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) warned that it had found uranium enriched to 83.7 per cent purity at Fordow – near the 90 per cent stage wanted to create nuclear weapons.

But regardless of Israel now commanding swathes of Iranian airspace, analysts say that solely Washington’s arsenal incorporates the traditional aerial weapons able to efficiently penetrating Fordow’s mountainous shell.

That weapon is the Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP), a bomb six metres in size and weighing 13.6 tonnes, whose dense casings allow it to stay intact whereas it punches by way of rock and concrete earlier than detonating deep underground.

Technically generally known as the GBU-57F/B, the “bunker busting” bomb is reportedly able to reaching as much as 61 metres underground earlier than exploding – round 10 occasions additional than the GBU-28 bunker busters owned by Israel.

However, with Iranian nuclear services at Fordow believed to be as deep as 80 or 90 metres underground, even the US weapons – of which Washington reportedly has round 20 in its stockpile – would doubtlessly battle to destroy the ability.

And it stays unlikely that the US would enter the fray immediately in such a manner, as doing so would considerably increase the danger to Washington’s army property within the area and spark a destabilising battle impacting Iran’s neighbours.

Will the US get entangled in Iran?

Despite these dangers, nevertheless, Donald Trump fuelled hypothesis of potential US involvement within the battle on Monday night time as he left the G7 summit in Canada early.

Contradicting claims by France’s President Emmanuel Macron, Mr Trump – who has praised Israel’s assaults on Iran as “excellent” – stated his purpose for leaving early “certainly has nothing to do with a ceasefire”, including: “Much bigger than that … Stay tuned!”

The clearest signal that the US was planning to deploy its bunker busters could be if Washington opted to maneuver its B-2 bomber jets – the one plane accredited to hold GBU-57F/Bs – to the UK-US army base within the Chagos Islands, The Times prompt.

US General Joseph Votel, previously chief of the Pentagon’s Central Command throughout Mr Trump’s first presidential time period, informed the New York Times: “We’ve had a policy for a long time of not providing those to the Israelis because we didn’t want them to use them.”

Would assaults on nuclear websites endanger civilians?

Alongside the geopolitical and army dangers of becoming a member of Israel in attacking a sovereign nation, the nuclear contamination from such an assault may pose a hazard to civilians, warned Mr Votel.

The IAEA chief, Rafael Grossi, has issued comparable warnings in current days, stressing that “any military action jeopardising the safety and security of nuclear facilities risks grave consequences for the people of Iran, the region, and beyond”.

Urging “all parties to exercise maximum restraint to avoid further escalation”, Mr Grossi warned that nuclear services mustn’t ever be attacked underneath any circumstances.

However, Israel’s ambassador to Washington, Yechiel Leiter claimed on Sunday that Israel has “a number of contingencies which will enable us to deal with Fordow”, telling ABC News: “Not everything is a matter of taking to the skies and bombing from afar.”

What different choices does Israel have apart from bombing?

Former US officers informed the New York Times that one plan beforehand floated by Israel to the Obama administration prompt Israeli commandos may struggle their manner into the ability and blow it up from the within – in an analogous however much more harmful operation to at least one efficiently carried out at a Hezbollah missile manufacturing manufacturing unit final 12 months.

“The Israelis have sprung a lot of clandestine operations lately, but the physics of the problem remain the same,” US General Kenneth McKenzie Jr informed the outlet, including: “It remains a very difficult target.”

Iran has denied allegations that it’s secretly creating nuclear weapons, the pretext upon which Israel started hanging Iran on Friday morning. More than 200 individuals have been killed in Iran and greater than 20 in Israel, their respective authorities have reported.

Claiming to have struck dozens of targets linked to Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes in a single day, an Israeli army official informed Reuters on Tuesday that the Israeli airforce had but to focus on Fordow – however that this might nonetheless occur.

With the nameless official insisting that Israel was taking precautions to keep away from triggering a nuclear catastrophe, defence minister Israel Katz informed reporters that the ability at Fordow is “an issue that will certainly be addressed”.