America’s 30,000 Pound Bunker-Buster Bomb ‘Could Fail’ To Destroy Fordow

National Security Journal ^ | 6/19/2025 | Harry Kazianis

[whyilovetexas111]

In a new report released by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, commonly known as CSIS, Project Director Heather Williams explains that the much-discussed GBU-57 might not be able to destroy the Iranian nuclear facility at Fordow.

Williams explains that the “GBU-57 has never been used in combat, but has been put through extensive testing; it is believed the United States has approximately 20 of the bombs available.”

[Sirius Lee]

It is Boeing after all...

[one guy in new jersey]

It’s not just about the depth to which the bombs need to blow solid rock to smithereens.

It’s also about not screwing up and dropping the bombs in the wrong place (lat/long) because you guessed wrong or had bad information.

The exact right place in Iran to double- or triple-up on bunker busters is the most important secret in the world right now, and there’s no guarantee any non-Iranian has that information. That’s a huge issue, no matter what Linda Graham thinks the U.S. should do. Trump will not want to attack, and, because the bunker busters were off-target, accomplish nothing.

Many Bothans had better be patriotically deading themselves right about now to get Trump the secret information he needs, or he’s going to start turning his stable genius gaze elsewhere.

[blackdog]

https://youtu.be/uw2eitx9Ly0?si=3XFWafiRcdh8C0EM

[one guy in new jersey]

“I think the IDF is going to have to resort to a Commando raid on Fordow.”

Concur.

[BOBWADE]

Build a MIGA (Make Iran Great Again) pipeline from theirf oil rigs to an opening. Fill their bunker with black gold. Then seal it up. Problem solved. If there are occupants still present, that much better.

[McGruff]

Israel has plenty of nukes. Place one at the entrance and boom. Door opened.

[anton]

There is a little car fire under a bridge and it takes two years for people to be able to drive across it again.

If a 30,000 lb bomb hits a nuclear reactor compound it will be more difficult to put it back on line than to start over.

[Jonty30]

It is forties. It probably has 300ft feet of concrete above it.

[Bob434]

What? We only have 1 we can drop?

[Bookshelf]

Kazianis is the Chicken Little of the foreign policy observers. No matter where, Taiwan, Ukraine, Iran... the sky is falling.

[FlingWingFlyer]

Not if you drop multiples.

[Opinionated Blowhard]

You know what else could fail to destroy the bunker? Not dropping a bomb on it.

[Dixie Yooper]

any troops at Fordow would be exposed to missile fire the same as the Israeli citizens are. It would be a massacre.

Aren't the same ID troops currently exposed to the same missile fire as the Israeli citizens are? If they can get Iran to fire missiles at their own country instead of Israel, why not try sending them in before we do a damn thing.

[woodbutcher1963]

I wonder how many IRG soldiers are guarding this Fordow site?

If the Israelis control the air throughout Iran then they just need to isolate this area so no one can get in. Then either kill every Iranian working there that does not want to surrender/leave the area.

When all the humans are gone send in the commandos drill a hole down through the concrete and then fire in the hole.
Refill the hole with concrete and wait for the 4 megaton earthquake.

[larrytown]

This is Iran we’re talking about.

I’m willing to bet that much of their vaunted facility is overblown rhetoric.

A raid would likely be sufficient - it has doors, it has air vents, it can be cracked.

[ROCKLOBSTER]

Part of Iran’s oil profits will be used to rebuild Gaza....

...as a strategic US military base, seaport and seaside resort area.

Send the Gazzards to Egypt, Yemen or the deep Congo.

[stars & stripes forever]

1 Bunker Bomb may not do the job, but 2 Bunker Bombs would.

[Brian Griffin]

“They want it intact, and do not want to spread radiation and poisonous fallout.”

The Iranians use highly purified uranium, which is probably less radioactive than a large percentage of Florida houses.

Uranium is about as poisonous as lead. The uranium hexafluoride is highly corrosive.

At this point, the U-235 is probably no longer in gas form, but solidified and hidden away in an area the size of Texas.

[meyer]

I’m a proponent of blasting the access doors, and then sending a multitude of drones inside to seek and destroy any and everything that even looks dangerous. Then, after that’s done, and the area tests safe, send in commandoes to secure and destroy the rest.

Or just seal all paths into the chamber and let it fade out naturally.

I prefer things that go “Boom” though. More fun.

[Brian Griffin]

GBU-57 MOP prototype
Specifications
Mass 30,000 lb (13,608 kg)
Length 20.5 ft (6.2 m)[3]
Diameter 31.5 in (0.8 m)
Filling AFX-757/PBXN-114
Filling weight 4,590 / 752 lb (2,082 / 341 kg)

GBU-43/B
Specifications
Mass 21,715 lb (9,850 kg)
Length 30 ft 1.75 in (9.1885 m)
Diameter 40.5 in (103 cm)
Filling H-6
Filling weight 18,739 lb (8,500 kg)
Blast yield 11 tons TNT (46 GJ)

GBU-43s are delivered from C-130 cargo aircraft, inside which they are carried on cradles resting on airdrop platforms. The bombs are dropped by deploying drogue parachutes, which also extract the cradle and platform from the aircraft. Shortly after launch the drogues are released and the bomb falls without the use of a retarding parachute. GPS satellite-guidance is used to guide bombs to their targets.

Perhaps the Israelis can use one of their C-130s to deliver an MOP of their own manufacture.