US bunker-buster bombs the best chance to hit Fordo
In inserting itself into Israel's war against Iran, Washington unleashed its massive "bunker-buster" bombs on Iran's Fordo fuel enrichment plant.
Those bombs were widely seen as the best chance of damaging or destroying Fordo, built deep into a mountain and untouched during Israel's week-long offensive.
Air Force General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said 14 of the bombs were used in Sunday's attack on Fordo and a second target.
The US is the only military capable of dropping the weapons, and the movement of B-2 stealth bombers toward Asia on Saturday had signaled 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.
In all, the US hit three nuclear sites and Caine told reporters Sunday that "initial battle damage assessments indicate that all three sites sustained extremely severe damage." The mission could have wide-ranging ramifications, including jeopardising any chance of Iran engaging in Trump's desired talks on its nuclear program 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 13,600 kilogram 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, which had raised the possibility that nuclear material could be released into the area if the GBU-57 A/B were used to hit the facility. Initial assessments by the IAEA, however, were that this had not happened.
Fordo is Iran's second nuclear enrichment facility after Natanz, its main facility, which already has been targeted by Israeli airstrikes and was also hit by the US on Sunday, along with Isfahan. The IAEA says it believes those earlier strikes have had "direct impacts" on the facility's underground centrifuge halls.
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 programed its B-2 Spirit stealth bomber to deliver the bomb, according to the Air Force.
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