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America’s 30,000 Pound Bunker-Buster Bomb ‘Could Fail’ To Destroy Fordow
National Security Journal ^ | 6/19/2025 | Harry Kazianis

Posted on 06/19/2025 4:58:28 AM PDT by 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.”

(Excerpt) Read more at nationalsecurityjournal.org ...


TOPICS: Government; History; Military/Veterans; Politics
KEYWORDS: airforce; donaldtrump; iran; israel
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To: Dixie Yooper

what?


81 posted on 06/19/2025 9:03:55 AM PDT by RBStealth (-- raised by wolves, educated by nuns)
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To: RBStealth
what?

If we were able to take out Osama Bin Ladin with commandos, the IDF's special forces shouldn't have a problem gaining access to sites that have been bombed well enough to get people out of there. Once they are in, Iran's missiles can't penetrate underground. They will be safe enough to set explosives exactly where they are needed. Once they are outside, they can be safely extracted back to Israel because "We Own The Skies Over Iran."

82 posted on 06/19/2025 9:33:09 AM PDT by Dixie Yooper (Ephesians 6:11)
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To: Dixie Yooper

you have no idea what the military is...its all an abstract concept to you...you are not a veteran


83 posted on 06/19/2025 9:35:36 AM PDT by RBStealth (-- raised by wolves, educated by nuns)
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To: whyilovetexas111

Two or three hitting in the same spot should take care of business.


84 posted on 06/19/2025 9:36:02 AM PDT by kenmcg (ti hi o)
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To: Vermont Lt

Good question.


85 posted on 06/19/2025 9:38:29 AM PDT by Churchillspirit (Pray for President Trump)
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To: whyilovetexas111

If we drop a dozen MOPs on Fordow, we still need inspections of ALL Iranian nuke sites.

I believe a better way is to decapitate the mullahs & their government, then allow Pahlavi & co. to form a new, democratic government with western backing, while insisting on on-the-ground inspections by the US, Israel, & anyone else interested with the exclusion of all UN personnel. Fordow can then be destroyed & sealed from the inside in a safe & effective manner.

Failure to completely destroy both the theocracy & the nuke sites leaves the job unfinished.


86 posted on 06/19/2025 9:47:11 AM PDT by Mister Da (The mark of a wise man is not what he knows, but what he knows he doesn't know!)
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To: whyilovetexas111

“America’s bomb might fail to destroy Fordow”

Paging Captain Obvious. Captain Obvious, please pick up the white courtesy phone.

Bombing Fordow will immediately invoke the “use it or lose it” rule of nuclear brinkmanship, and if we do it it just moves the demonstration site from Tel Aviv to an East Coast city in the US.


87 posted on 06/19/2025 12:30:20 PM PDT by Jim Noble (Assez de mensonges et de phrases)
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To: Candor7

“ Israels elite commando forces will take it down and occupy it”

Oh please!


88 posted on 06/19/2025 12:31:05 PM PDT by Jim Noble (Assez de mensonges et de phrases)
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To: stars & stripes forever

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

You know after 3 years of day and night bombing by Bomber Command and the 8th Air Force Germany’s war production actually peaked in March 1945.

Nobody wins from the air.


89 posted on 06/19/2025 2:05:59 PM PDT by Jim Noble (Assez de mensonges et de phrases)
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To: whyilovetexas111

EVERYONE EVACUATE THE MOUNTAIN! RUN! Then go poke around a little bit. Or a lot.


90 posted on 06/19/2025 2:52:43 PM PDT by Libloather (Why do climate change hoax deniers live in mansions on the beach?)
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To: Mastador1

What hole? There may be a surface crater but as the weapon burrows deeper, the shaft will collapse behind the warhead.
The only advantage a subsequent attack would have is perhaps a subsurface easier to traverse because of cracked rock.
But that is counting on the weapon explosion doesn’t get hot enough to fuse that rock together.


91 posted on 06/19/2025 5:41:13 PM PDT by VetoBill
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To: Jim Noble

Its exactly how this is going down.

Who wants to waste millions of dollars worth of U 235, when you can have the option to inventory it ?


92 posted on 06/19/2025 6:55:32 PM PDT by Candor7 (Ask not for whom the Trump Trolls,He trolls for thee!<img src="" width=500</img><a href="">tag</a>) )
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To: whyilovetexas111; Vermont Lt

Again, sorry to repeat myself, but:

According to what I’ve read, the sites are so deep (half a mile down) it would take multiple passes from US bombers dropping our biggest baddest bunker busters precisely on target, and that might very well still fail to take them out.

Many here will object to the source, but this pieces together several.other sources, so for simplicity’s sake:

Grossi said: “I’ve been there multiple times. To reach it, one must go deep, then deeper, and deeper still. Iran’s nuclear program cannot be destroyed by an attack.”
He’s right. The world’s most powerful bunker-buster, the GBU-57, can only penetrate 66 meters, while even the latest nuclear bomb can only impact up to 500 meters underground.

Iran has placed its IR-9 centrifuges on shock-absorber systems, capable of withstanding 6.0 Richter scale earthquakes. These sites lie deep within mountains.

Israel does not have the GBU-57; only the US does, and only B-2 bombers can carry them — 2 bombs per jet. To destroy just one Iranian site at 800m depth, the US would need to drop at least 12 bombs precisely at one spot — requiring 6 bombers per site.

Iran is believed to have at least 5 such deep nuclear sites. To destroy them all, the US would need to deploy 30 B-2 bombers, but it only has 18 total. Meaning, at least 2 Iranian sites will survive.

Moreover, Iran has not built straight shafts. After every 50 meters, tunnels twist hundreds of meters sideways before going down again — making pinpoint strikes nearly impossible. Even if the first bomb hits, the remaining 11 could hit empty ground.

In short, Iran’s underground nuclear infrastructure is now too deep, too complex, and too protected to be taken out militarily

Link: https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/iran-ups-ante-as-israel-chafes-for

See also post by another Freeper here:
https://freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/4323391/posts?page=30#30

On top of that little problem, there’s this one:

Analysis on Deflection of Projectile Penetrating into Composite Concrete Targets
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9695738/

Tldr on above in super simple terms: When the projectile strikes this composite concrete structure, its “nose” slows relative to its “hind end”, causing it to tip at an angle or twist so that its trajectory is changed. In other words, deflected away from the target beneath/behind the diamond-shaped composite concrete barrier.

These sites are widely described as “concrete reinforced”, but did the Iranians actually use this method? I don’t know, but it stands to reason they may well have.

The concrete thing aside, it was well known the Israelis don’t have the mega bunker busters or means to deliver them before they started this war. So what was their plan? Either (A) they planned to get us to bomb these sites (in hopes that would do the job), or (B) they had devised some other plan to take them out.

As for (B), see:

Israel: We Are Hitting Fordow, With or Without U.S., Bunker-Busters
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4323678/posts

This war isn’t really about Iran’s nuclear program anyway. It’s about regime change.


93 posted on 06/20/2025 12:20:42 AM PDT by CatHerd (Whoever said "all's fair in love and war" probably never participated in either.)
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