Latest news with #B2
Time of India
3 hours ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Trump considers tactical nuclear bomb on Iran's Fordow site — reports claim even bunker busters won't work
US president Donald Trump has indicated that the US would launch an attack on Iran's heavily fortified Fordow nuclear site only if the US military's most powerful conventional weapon, the 30,000-pound GBU-57 "bunker buster", has the capability to destroy the facility, as per a report. Donald Trump Weighs Strike on Iran He still has not authorised strikes on the critical uranium enrichment facility at Fordow, as he awaits the possibility that the threat of US involvement would lead Iran to talks, and Trump is also doubtful whether dropping the GBU-57s would actually eliminate the site, according to The Guardian. ALSO READ: Five ways Iran can retaliate if U.S strikes the Islamic Republic by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like If You Eat Ginger Everyday for 1 Month This is What Happens Tips and Tricks Undo Pentagon Doubts GBU-57 Can Finish the Nuclear Site Two defense officials told The Guardian that discussions about the effectiveness of GBU-57s have been a key topic at the Pentagon since the start of Trump's second term, as per the report. The officials have highlighted that conventional bombs, even as part of a wider strike package of several GBU-57s, would not penetrate deep enough underground and that they would only do enough damage to collapse tunnels and bury them under rubble, reported The Guardian. The assessments made by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) found that to entirely destroy Fordow, which Israeli intelligence estimated to be 300 ft underground, it would be possible only if the US first softened the ground with conventional bombs and then ultimately dropped a tactical nuclear weapon from a B2 bomber, as per the report. Live Events Two officials explained that the challenge of using the GBU-57 to target Fordow would be because of the location of the facility, which is buried inside a mountain, and also because the bomb has never been used in a comparable situation before, as per the report. Experts Say Bombing Might Only Delay, Not Destroy According to the report, even if the US drops GBU-57s, it would mostly just set back Iran's ability to obtain weapons-grade uranium for up to a few years, but not end the programme entirely, reported The Guardian. An ex-DTRA deputy director, retired Maj. Gen. Randy Manner said, 'It would not be a one and done,' adding that Fordow could be quickly rebuilt, quoted The Guardian. He also said, 'It might set the program back six months to a year. It sounds good for TV but it's not real," as quoted in the report. FAQs What is the GBU-57? Nicknamed the 'bunker buster,' it's a 30,000-pound conventional bomb designed to destroy underground military bunkers. Can the GBU-57 destroy Fordow? Probably not completely. Experts say it might collapse some parts, but not penetrate deep enough to fully destroy the facility.
9 News
17 hours ago
- Politics
- 9 News
'One weapon, one plane' that can end Iran's nuclear program
Your web browser is no longer supported. To improve your experience update it here Israel claims that in the last few days it has taken complete control of Iran's airspace, and that it has set back the country's nuclear program immensely with targeted attacks on key sites and people. So why is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu still courting a US entry into the conflict ? It comes down to one weapon. The US GBU-57 massive ordnance penetrator, or "bunker buster" missile. (CNN) Iran's key nuclear enrichment facility, Fordow, is buried up to 100m below the surface of the ground, rendering it all but impervious to Israeli aerial action. And observers say that while this facility is online, Iran's nuclear program may be set back, but it's not knocked out. "There is only one weapon in the world that can destroy a place like Fordow, and there's only one plane in the world that can carry that weapon," retired US Air Force colonel and CNN military analyst Cedric Leighton said. The bunker buster can only be carried by a B2 bomber. (CNN) That weapon is the "bunker buster" that has been brought up at times during the ongoing turmoil. More properly, it's the GBU-57, a massive ordnance penetrator (MOP). The MOP is a six-metre, 13.6-tonne bomb that can strike a deeply buried target after multiple impacts with "pinpoint accuracy", Leighton said. And the only plane in the world capable of carrying it is the USAF B2 bomber. "Israel doesn't have any of these planes, or any of these bombs, and that's why they want the US to join their aerial campaign against Iran," Leighton said. President Donald Trump has given himself a two-week deadline to decide whether the US will do so. national War Weapons military Iran USA World CONTACT US
Indian Express
a day ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
Will US use its ‘bunker buster' bomb on Iran's fortified nuclear site? What may happen if it did
As Israel steps up its military campaign to dismantle Iran's nuclear programme, questions are being raised about whether the United States could deploy one of its most powerful non-nuclear weapons, the GBU-57 A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator, or 'bunker buster'. Israel claims Iran is nearing the capability to build a nuclear weapon, with much of its enriched uranium reportedly housed in the heavily fortified Fordow facility buried deep inside a mountain in northwestern Iran. It is one of the most secure sites in the region, designed to withstand conventional strikes. The bomb is commonly known as a 'bunker buster' as it was designed to destroy underground bunkers, like Fordow, the 30,000-pound bomb can punch through 200 feet of earth or concrete before detonating. However, it can be carried only by a B2 bomber that has air superiority and requires a solid GPS signal to lock in on its target. As per reports by The Guardian, US President Donald Trump has suggested to defense officials it would make sense for the US to launch strikes against Iran only if the 'bunker buster' bomb was guaranteed to destroy the enrichment facility at Fordow, according to people familiar with the deliberations. 'You make sure you save them for places like Iran and North Korea because you don't need something that goes that deep,' said ABC News contributor and retired Col. Steve Ganyard. He added that while the bomb carries 5,000 pounds of explosives, 'it wouldn't be a massive blast. It would penetrate the ground and shoot up some debris but it won't be a massive cloud.' The bomb has never been used in combat and remains exclusive to the US military. Only the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber — also operated solely by the US is capable of delivering it. These bombers are stationed at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri and would need about 15 hours to reach Iran if deployed, military experts say, ABC news reported. That deployment seems technically possible, as Ganyard noted Israel has already destroyed much of Iran's air defence network, making stealth less critical in this scenario. Iran's Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant, located roughly 95 km southwest of Tehran, is built into the side of a mountain and lies approximately 260 to 300 feet underground — a depth designed to withstand airstrikes and even bunker-buster bombs, Al Jazeera reported. Construction on the Fordow site is believed to have started around 2006, and it became operational by 2009 — the same year Iran publicly acknowledged its existence. Under the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran agreed to suspend enrichment at Fordow and repurpose the site into a research facility. However, following the US withdrawal from the deal in 2018, Tehran resumed uranium enrichment activities at the location, maintaining that its nuclear programme is intended for peaceful purposes. According to Al Jazeera, the facility is reportedly protected by Iranian and Russian surface-to-air missile systems, though some of those defences may have been hit in recent Israeli strikes. The potential for US involvement in the current conflict remains unclear. Trump, who has voiced strong support for Israel's actions, has so far stayed noncommittal about American military engagement. However, Trump has repeatedly warned Iran's leadership over its alleged nuclear ambitions. Iran has denied pursuing a nuclear weapon, and international observers remain on high alert. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Mariano Grossi, last week warned against attacks on nuclear facilities. 'Such attacks have serious implications for nuclear safety, security and safeguards, as well as regional and international peace and security,' Grossi said.
Daily Mirror
a day ago
- Politics
- Daily Mirror
'We're heading for World War 3, but no-one knows why'
How did it come to this? The world's most oppressed and misunderstood people, denied a state of their own for a thousand years, dropping bunker-busting bombs on the stateless, poor and oppressed people next door. People who live cheek-by-jowl with democracy and freedom and wealth and Eurovision, who see its benefits for others every single day, and still think they're a bad idea. A nation subject to United Nations inspections, swingeing sanctions, and an arse-backwards fundamentalism that thinks the Middle Ages were a bit too racy and modern, on the cusp of developing the most technologically-advanced weapons in history. And the most powerful nation on Earth, which has guaranteed the security and scrutiny and non-nuclear conflicts, reduced to trolling the world because it doesn't want to police the things that, if they're not policed, mean it's World War Three. Never has there been a time where so many people wake up in the morning, to so little reason for optimism, and ask themselves just what the f*** is going on. And when all the world seems powerless, everyone in it feels there's nothing they can do. Well, you're wrong there. Power comes from knowledge, and all you need to do is stop shouting or fretting or crying, and try to understand. Israel lashes out because its people have been under the lash for centuries, and within living memory they were all but exterminated in the most gruesome ways humankind has ever invented. Trauma can enter the bones and be transferred in utero. Ask yourself what your grandchildren would do, if they grew up knowing it had happened once to your family already and were daily attacked by the unhinged bloke down the road. Iran rains hellfire on Israel because it relies on fear and oppression and insularity for its sick interpretation of an otherwise-peaceful faith, for its power and its sense of self. Within living memory, the Satanic West has tried to overturn a popular uprising and prop up an oppressive monarchy for the sake of stripping its oil reserves. When that didn't work, the Satanists let their mate move in next door, and gave him missiles. And America - oh, America. A shining city on a hill, with an orange version of Jabba the Hutt unwilling to roll off his golden chaise longue unless there's something shiny in it for him. Donald Trump rejects war of all sorts not because he's a man of faith or peace, but because it's a net cost and his bone spurs prevent him from experiencing any sense of active duty. I've been around for almost half a century, and grew up watching TV footage of missiles and stone-throwers and bomb attacks and hostage-taking in the Holy Land. It's never been as scary as now, from this distance, because nuclear war wasn't a possibility. But the fear everyone closer to it felt then has led them to the place where there's a real risk of radiation, in all senses of the word. If Trump sends his B2 bombers in with the 13-ton bunker busters to destroy the enrichment plant buried inside an Iranian mountain, US troops and embassies and citizens worldwide will be targeted by Islamic terror. If he doesn't, Israel will step up its own military action and the entire Middle East will spiral into war that won't be a binary fight between two regimes, but a hydra-like conflict of infinite variety, with religions, sects, schisms, ethnicity, history and hatreds that you would never unpick. And all in a place where the oil is. Where the trade passes. Where the migration, the domestic security threats, and the arguments all arise. If you wanted to make the world a significantly-worse and more appalling place, the best way of doing it would be to lob a bomb into the Middle East. And yet, if he doesn't, the significant Jewish minority in his own country will turn against him, his arms industry would suffer, the US economy will hit the toilet and Iran could get a nuke inside a year and it'll all go bang anyway. There are so many areas of similarity between all these opposing arguments that you'd think they'd notice. They're all angry old men. They're ultra-conservative, corrupt, and absolutist. Trump's the only one who eats bacon, but they're all happy to send in the heavies and baton, tear gas, or shoot whoever gets in their way. And the power they wield all relies on making people afraid of the other guy, over there, even though he's just like them. You can ask how we got here by looking at eons of history, or the post-war consensus, or October 7. You can shrug your shoulders and say it's always been a troublespot, or - as loudmouths and social media are forever encouraging us to do - you can pick a side and join the shouting. But to steal a bit of fundamentalism back for the sake of common sense, what went wrong is everyone forgot what the Holy Land was for. All these men battle for power over a group of rocks in a part of the world where people used to have good ideas. It's been raging for centuries, with the occasional pocket of peaceful co-existence. But the ideas seem to have run out. Iran is a massive, beautiful country filled with the nicest people. Its regime is on its last legs, its leaders incompetent, and its citizenship thirsty for reform. Israel is tiny, disproportionately successful, and packed with lovely things, from Netta to diamonds and the vital ingredient for Jaffa cakes. Both have a total lack of hope, because the one nation in the world whose actual job is to be that beacon has put a grasping troll in charge of the light. Lots of people see it. You are not alone in how you feel. And if everyone realised that how we got here was by failing to understand what it's like to be someone else, then maybe we'd all be someone better. And to prove the point, I suggest Ayatollah Khameni runs America for a day, Trump takes over Israel, and Netanyahu works out of Tehran. I swear, it'd be no bloody different, and that's what people need to remember. There is no such thing as 'the other guy'.
Sky News AU
a day ago
- Politics
- Sky News AU
Sharri Markson rips into Tucker Carlson for ‘hysterical protest' against Trump
Sky News host Sharri Markson says Donald Trump is 'likely' to order the B2 bombers with the bunker buster bombs to hit the Fordow nuclear site in Iran. This comes as Soroka Hospital in southern Israel has been smashed by an Iranian missile as both countries continue to exchange fire. 'He'll do this despite the hysterical public protests from anti-Americans who claim to be American first – the most prominent of these is Tucker Carson,' Ms Markson said. 'Tucker is dressing up his anti-Western views as die-hard MAGA, when it's the exact opposite. 'In intelligence circles, he is considered a pawn and propaganda tool of Russia's.'
