Latest news with #MOP
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
World Waits As Trump Mulls Direct Military Action Against Iran
As the Israel-Iran war enters its seventh day, U.S. President Donald Trump is reportedly edging closer to getting directly involved in the fight. Trump has approved plans to attack Iran, but has yet to give the final order, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday afternoon. You can catch up on our coverage of Israel's Operation Rising Lion, designed to keep Iran from developing nuclear weapons and dismantle its long-range weapons capabilities, here. Trump 'told senior aides late Tuesday that he approved of attack plans for Iran, but was holding off on giving the final order to see if Tehran would abandon its nuclear program,' the publication stated, citing three people familiar with the deliberations. WSJ: President Trump has approved attack plans for Iran, but he is holding off on giving the final order to see if Iran will abandon its nuclear program — Amichai Stein (@AmichaiStein1) June 18, 2025 There's another reported reason why Trump has yet to give the order. He is worried about what would happen if the U.S. dropped 30,000-pound GBU-57/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) bunker buster bombs – America's most powerful conventional munition – on Iran's most heavily fortified nuclear facility, but failed to destroy it, Axios reported. 'Pentagon officials told Trump they're confident' that the MOPs would work…but it's not clear Trump was totally convinced,' Axios noted. As we have discussed many times in the past, even the mighty MOP might not be able to completely obliterate Iran's deeply buried and heavily protected nuclear facilities like Fordow. So far, the only aircraft certified to drop MOPs is the U.S. Air Force B-2A Spirit stealth bomber. Israel lacks the means strike Iran's deepest installations and is considering alternative ways of destroying the Fordow nuclear facility should Trump not order an attack. 'Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ambassador to Washington Yechiel Leiter hinted in recent interviews that the Israel Defense Forces have options beyond just airstrikes,' Axios explained. 'One could be a risky commando raid. Israeli special forces conducted such an operation last September, albeit on a smaller scale, when they destroyed an underground missile factory in Syria by planting and detonating explosives.' Trump pressed aides on whether the bunker-buster plan to bomb Iran's Fordow nuclear facility will work. Pentagon officials told him they were confident it would. @MarcACaputo and I write for @axioshttps:// — Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) June 18, 2025 The War Zone for years has highlighted that Israel would likely be left to a high-risk ground operation if it were to attempt to destroy Iran's nuclear program without the help of U.S. airpower. I have been detailing exactly this reality for many years. Very risky operation, but it has literally the biggest stakes. Access is key and Israel has heavily degraded Iranian air defenses (not totally), but what happens on the ground is another story and, of course getting out. — Tyler Rogoway (@Aviation_Intel) June 19, 2025 On Wednesday, Trump went public with his thinking, saying he won't really know until the last minute whether he will pull the trigger. 'I have ideas on what to do but I haven't made a final—I like to make the final decision one second before it's due,' he told reporters Wednesday. As we reported earlier on Wednesday, Trump has been more coy about whether he will attack Iran. 'I may do it. I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I'm going to do.' Trump stated. U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) commander Gen. Michael Kurilla met with Trump and presented him with military options regarding Iran, a source familiar with the details told The Jerusalem Post Wednesday. Kurilla himself supports joining Israeli strikes JUST IN: CENTCOM Commander Michael Kurilla met with Trump and presented military options on Iran. Kurilla supports a strike and is deeply familiar with both U.S. and Israeli plans. Sources say Trump would prefer a deal he calls a "surrender," but since that's unlikely, the… — GeoInsider (@InsiderGeo) June 18, 2025 Today, 12 U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor stealth fighters landed at Lakenheath Air Base in England, reportedly bound for Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan. It's the latest plus-up of U.S. forces that have seen an increase in Navy and Air Force assets. So far, however, the U.S. has only provided defensive support to Israel. American ground, sea, and air-based systems have been helping, albeit in a limited way, shoot down some of the hundreds of ballistic missiles and roughly 1,000 drones Iran has fired. To date, Iran has launched more than 400 ballistic missiles, with just over 20 hitting urban areas, causing casualties and extensive damage, according to a post on X by Times of Israel reporter Emanue Fabian. About two dozen people have been killed and more than 500 wounded. Iran has launched over 400 ballistic missiles and some 1,000 drones at Israel since the start of the conflict on Friday, according to fresh data from the the ballistic missiles, just over 20 impacted urban areas in Israel, causing casualties and extensive damage. 24… — Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) June 18, 2025 Still, the number of casualties is far lower than Israeli officials anticipated, Fabian noted. To defend against these missiles, Israel, with some help from the U.S., has been shooting at them. Israel's interception rate is 90%, with 30 of 370 Iranian missiles impacting Israel as of June 17, the Wall Street Journal reported. You can see the Raptors landing at Lakenheath in the following video made by a plane spotter there. Low-resolution satellite imagery posted on social media seems to indicate that the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar is nearly empty. The base is home to a diverse array of aircraft, including a rotating mix of bombers, fighters, refuelers, surveillance aircraft, helicopters, and other airframes. Earlier in the day, we contacted U.S. officials for comment, but they declined. Previously, the Navy moved assets out of Bahrain ahead of any possible Iranian attack. Very interesting: Low-res satellite images show Qatar's Al-Udeid Air Base nearly empty, with aircraft parking areas cleared.U.S., UK, and Qatari jets appear to have been relocated over fears of possible Iranian strikes. — Clash Report (@clashreport) June 18, 2025 Meanwhile, Israel and Iran continue to attack each other. The IDF said it repelled the most recent Iranian missile barrage while launching several more airstrikes. 'The IDF completed a series of strikes in Tehran: Over 20 military targets including nuclear weapons development project sites, and missile production sites belonging to the Iranian regime in the area of Tehran were targeted,' IDF claimed on Telegram. 'Over the past hours, 60 IAF fighter jets, with the precise direction of the IDF Intelligence Directorate, struck over 20 military targets in Tehran.' Israel's nearly complete air dominance has not only allowed its fighters freedom of action, but it has also enabled its aerial refueling jets to move farther east. This has providing fighters more gas to sustain longer operations and to lug much harder-hitting direct attack munitions to strike larger and more heavily fortified targets. So far, the IAF said it has conducted more than 600 aerial refuelings. That's a critical capability, considering Israel has struck targets 1,400 miles away. 600+ Aerial Refuelings in Middle Eastern SkiesSince the beginning of Operation Rising Lion, IAF fighter jets have struck Iranian regime targets deep in by aerial refuelers flying dozens of sorties, over 600 mid-air refuelings have been conducted to date.… — Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) June 18, 2025 Iran's state-run television channel was reportedly hacked, and instead of broadcasting its normal fare, it played anti-regime and pro-revolution messaging. The satellite signal for Iran's state-run television channel has reportedly been hacked, with all channels now playing anti-regime messaging and videos which call for freedom and revolution against the regime inside Iran. — OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) June 18, 2025 The U.S. Embassy in Israel has authorized some American diplomats and family members to leave and are now being flown out of the country by the U.S. military, two State Department officials familiar with the matter told ABC News. 'Given the ongoing situation and as part of the Embassy's authorized departure status, Mission personnel have begun departing Israel through a variety of means,' a State Department spokesperson said. The US earlier today evacuated some embassy personnel and family members from Israel on a US military aircraft, sources tell @jmhansler @kylieatwood @OrenCNN — Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) June 18, 2025 As Trump weighs his options, 'the foreign ministers of Germany, France and Britain plan to hold nuclear talks with their Iranian counterpart on Friday in Geneva,' a German diplomatic source told Reuters. 'The ministers will first meet with the European Union's top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, at Germany's permanent mission in Geneva before holding a joint meeting with the Iranian foreign minister, the source said.' In a message on X, Wall Street Journal reporter Laurence Normaan said 'the U.S. is in the picture' in these negotiations. I am told by a source, as @ReutersIran who scooped this said, that the U.S. is in the picture. This is not a purely E3/EU initiative. — laurence norman (@laurnorman) June 18, 2025 This is a developing story. Stay with The War Zone for updates. Contact the author: howard@
Reuters
7 hours ago
- Politics
- Reuters
How US military power looms over the Israel-Iran conflict
If Trump decides to use U.S. forces against facilities like Fardow, he may opt to send the U.S. Air Force's B-2 Spirit stealth bomber. The bomber's internal weapons bays are specifically designed to maintain stealth characteristics while accommodating large ordnance loads which could include two GBU-57A/B MOP (Massive Ordnance Penetrator), a 30,000-pound precision-guided 'bunker buster' bomb. The MOP represents the largest conventional bomb in the U.S. arsenal, specifically engineered to defeat hardened underground bunkers. Its massive size provides unmatched bunker-penetration capability, while the weapon's 20.5-foot length and GPS-guided precision targeting system enable accurate strikes against specific underground facilities. Its penetration capability of over 60 metres (200 feet) through hardened concrete makes it effective against the world's most protected underground installations.
NBC News
8 hours ago
- Politics
- NBC News
What could happen if Trump does decide to bomb Iran's main nuclear site
If President Donald Trump does decide to use the United States' largest conventional bomb to destroy Iran's fortresslike Fordo nuclear enrichment facility, the colossal force of the explosion would likely cause casualties among workers or anyone else still at the site. But it would not trigger a nuclear explosion or a widespread radiological or chemical spill, according to former nuclear officials and experts. Sitting to the south of Iran's capital, Tehran, the Fordo plant is used to enrich uranium for the production of nuclear energy or, potentially, a bomb. But although this uranium and its chemical byproducts can be harmful to ingest or touch without protective equipment — they won't create a wider blast or regional contamination, analysts say. That would only be the case if Fordo housed nuclear reactors or warheads, which international watchdogs and experts say is not the case. 'If you're down there and it gets bombed, you're stuffed,' Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, the ex-commanding officer of the British military's Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Regiment, told NBC News on Thursday. 'But that's because this is a 2,500-kilogram (about 5,500-pound) warhead we are talking about here,' he said, referring to the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (or MOP), the largest non-nuclear bomb in the world, which only the U.S. has. Less of a bunker-buster and more of a mountain-buster, this is perhaps the only conventional ordnance in the world that could do the job if Trump did decide to bomb Fordo. 'But if anyone thinks this would be like Chernobyl — absolutely not,' de Bretton-Gordon said. 'Blowing up uranium will not create a nuclear explosion; that is a very complex piece of science, which is why it's so bloody difficult to make nuclear bombs.' There is also little chance of a wider radiation leak or spill impacting the surrounding area, according to Mark Nelson, founder and managing director of Radiant Energy Group, a research consultancy based in Chicago. That's because 'the nuclear substances at Fordo are only very weakly radioactive,' he said. Were this a nuclear plant or missile site, there could be 'fission products' — the stuff uranium breaks down into during a nuclear reaction — which can cause a wider catastrophe. Scrutiny has nonetheless sharpened on Fordo as Trump deliberates whether to join Israel's attacks on Iran. Iran's most advanced enrichment facility, Fordo was refining uranium to 60%, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. That's far more than the 3-5% needed for power plants — and far closer to the 90% required to build a warhead. Until 2018, Iran had been complying with a landmark deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, that offered Tehran billions of dollars in sanctions relief in exchange for agreeing to curb its nuclear program. The agreement was sealed by President Barack Obama in July 2015, along with the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council — the U.S., Russia, France, China and the United Kingdom — as well as Germany and the European Union. Most independent observers said it was successfully limiting Iran's nuclear program. That effectively collapsed when Trump walked away from the pact three years later. Iran had been back in talks with Trump when Israel started bombing last week. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had no choice because Iran was racing toward building a bomb, something the International Atomic Energy Agency says it has not been able to confirm. The watchdog has been nonetheless concerned about Fordo, where uranium's naturally mined form is turned into a gas and spun at high speed inside centrifuges. That separates its heavier isotope, uranium-238, from the lighter uranium-235 that can be used for civilian purposes or otherwise. Iran says Fordo was designed to hold 3,000 of these centrifuges, a 'size and configuration' that is 'inconsistent with a peaceful program,' Obama said in 2009. Observers such as de Bretton-Gordon say the U.S.'s enormous MOP bomb might be powerful enough not only to destroy this facility but effectively incase it under the collapsed mountain. That could produce a similar effect to the sarcophagus built around Chernobyl after the disaster in 1986, Bretton-Gordon said. Whereas Chernobyl's protective enclosure is 40 feet thick, 'at Fordo we would be talking about a sarcophagus 200-feet thick,' de Bretton-Gordon said. That's not to say the risk of contamination would be zero. If the uranium gas is released, it would partly decompose into hydrofluoric acid, a deadly substance that causes deep-tissue burns if touched without protective gear, and potentially fatal problems for the heart, lungs and nervous system if inhaled. 'It's a nasty chemical to be around without correct safety equipment and procedures,' said Nelson at the Radiant Energy Group. Any blast survivors, or rescuers without the necessary safety equipment, would face 'extremely severe' consequences, he said, but caveated that 'you have to be really close and really unprotected.' There is also a chance that radioactive material could seep into any water source that's running through the mountain. But the likely radioactive levels would be low — detectable rather than harmful — both Nelson and de Bretton-Gordon said. Ultimately, Nelson agreed, all of these risks pale in comparison with the threat posed by the MOP bomb itself, whose payload is upward of 5,500 pounds and weighs a total of 30,000 pounds. 'The danger at the seaside of saltwater ingestion is real — even a few liters could kill you,' he analogized. 'This danger, however, is relatively small compared to drowning.'
United News of India
10 hours ago
- Business
- United News of India
Trump gives Iran a 2-week window to open negotiations before considering US military action
Washington, June 20 (UNI) Mulling over US options, President Donald Trump has said that it will give Iran a two-week window to open negotiations before considering direct US military intervention in the conflict, reports CNN. White House officials have expressed hope that Trump's hardline stance, coupled with Israel's relentless strikes against Iranian missile infrastructure – which Tel Aviv says has decimated two-thirds of Tehran's missile launching capabilities – will open windows for negotiations, and allow both countries to come to a deal. For its part, Iran has refused to budge an inch, with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khomeini warning of serious repercussions for the US, if it intervenes militarily. In a statement read out by the White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that there was a "substantial chance of negotiations" with Iran, though did not confirm anything. Meanwhile, CBS News has reported that while Trump has approved plans to attack Iran, and has been diverting military supplies to American bases in the Middle East, he has still not decided whether or not to go through with military attacks. He is reportedly weighing an attack on Iran's underground uranium enrichment facility at Fordo, and is one of the most difficult areas to strike. The Fordo complex is built deep within northern Iran's rugged, remote mountains and is designed to withstand air strikes, with its underground location shielding it from conventional bombs. Despite the Israeli military's capabilities, the Fordo complex presents a very unique challenge for the IDF, because of the sheer depth of its underground facilities. To cause any meaningful damage to the site it would need to be targeted by a 'bunker buster' munition that is able to penetrate deep below the surface. While Israel possesses the resources to destroy underground bunkers, it does not have the bombing capabilities required to destroy a complex like the Ford plant. However, the US is believed to have a bomb which might do the trick – the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) – which can strike 61m deep. But even that may prove insufficient to destroy the Ford, as the tunnels go 80-90m below the surface. UNI ANV GNK
India.com
10 hours ago
- Politics
- India.com
Iran-Israel war: Can US' GBU-57 bunker buster destroy Iran's underground Fordow nuclear site? Experts make stunning claim, say Trump is unsure of...
Trump is unsure whether the GBU-57 bunker buster can take out Iran's Fordow nuclear site. (File) Iran-Israel war: US President Donald Trump has threatened to join its ally Israel in its war against Iran, demanding an 'unconditional surrender' from Tehran, and even threatening to assassinate Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. However, beyond the war rhetoric, Trump remains undecided on whether to commit the United States to a war in the Middle East which it may not be able to pull out of for at least 5-10 years, especially since the US President remains skeptical about whether its lethal bunker buster bombs have the capability to destroy Iran's underground Fordow nuclear facility. Trump unsure about bunker buster's ability to destroy Fordow site According to defense experts, Donald Trump is unsure whether even the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) bunker buster, aka the 'mother of all bombs', would be able to destroy the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant, which is basically buried beneath a gigantic mountain, and is protected by multiple units of Russian-made S-300 air defense systems. As per media reports, Trump has told defense officials that the US would be justified in attacking Iran only if the bunker buster bomb is guaranteed to destroy the uranium enrichment facility at Fordow. The US President was told that the gargantuan 30,000lbs (13.6 tonne) GBU-57 bunker buster would destroy the Fordow facility, but Trump remains unconvinced, and as such has not yet given the green light for America to join the Israel-Iran war. Additionally, experts believe that Trump is also looking at the possibility of Iran coming to the table for a 'deal' due to fear of US involvement in the Iran-Israel war. US would need tactical nukes to take out Fordow? The GBU-57, aka the bunker buster bomb, is a 30,000 pound bomb which is dropped using the US' B2 stealth bombers, and while its capable of taking out any other hardened underground facility, the Fordow site is unique as it has been specially built to withstand US' capabilities, particularly its ultra-heavy bunker buster bombs. The Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant is a hardened, ultra-secure nuclear facility built deep beneath a mountain, and surrounded by tall peaks on all sides. The mountainous terrain renders even the most advanced cruise missiles ineffective, and the site is protected by a large number of air defense systems concentrated in a small region, making it almost impossible for any missile or drone to go through. US defense officials believe that only a tactical nuclear weapon would be able to completely destroy the Fordow nuclear facility, but Trump is not in favor of using nukes to attack the site. Quoting people familiar with the matter, The Guardian reported that Israeli intelligence estimates that the Fordow nuclear plant, which is built under a mountain near the Qom city, could be up to 90 meters deep. To reach such a depth, the US would have to have to weaken the ground with conventional bombs and then drop a tactical nuclear bomb from a B2 bomber to wipe out the entire facility. However, Donald Trump, at least for now, is not in favor of using the nuclear option, the report said.
