US President Donald Trump has said that the American military has completed airstrikes on three sites in Iran, marking a significant escalation in the ongoing conflict with Israel.
The airstrikes hit a key uranium enrichment site, Fordo, which had remained unscathed in Israeli attacks so far and is believed to be key to Iran’s nuclear program.
Located 300 feet beneath a mountain, Fordo is where Iran has allegedly tried to enrich uranium for weapons purposes and stockpile the enriched uranium.
The two sites of Natanz and Esfahan, which were earlier struck by the Israeli Air Force, were also hit by the Americans.
Trump said in a Truth social post that “a full payload of bombs” was dropped on Fordo.
Israel’s best chance at destroying the facility at Fordo required an American produced bomb, which is so heavy that it can only be dropped by a US B2 Spirit bomber. The latest bombing seems to have achieved that target, even though the extent of damage at Fordo is still unknown.
The bomb used by the Americans to target Fordo is called the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator, or MOP. It is designed to attack “deeply-buried facilities and hardened bunkers and tunnels”, and is meant to destroy targets in well-protected facilities. Israel, or any country other than the US, does not have bombs that can penetrate a site as deep as Fordo.
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The GBU-57 MOP
The MOP measures about 20.5 feet in length and 31.5 inches in diameter and weighs about 13,000 kg, according to the US Air Force.
It is designed to penetrate up to 60 m of earth before exploding. The warhead is encased in a special high-performance steel alloy, which is meant to enable it to carry a large explosive payload while maintaining the penetrator case’s integrity during impact, according to an Air Force fact sheet.
The Fordo site is about 90 metres in depth. It is not clear how much damage the bombings have done in Fordo.
Aerospace company Boeing developed the GBU-57, and as of 2015, it had been contracted to produce 20 of them, according to the Air Force quoted by CBS.