15-ton mega bomb needed to destroy Iran's last nuclear facility – here's why Israel can't deliver it

The New York Post ^ | June 17, 2025, 6:18 p.m. ET | Michael Kaplan

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Israel needs a 15-ton ‘bunker buster’ bomb to destroy the last untouched nuclear facility in Iran, but only the US has one.

Such a powerful weapon – the largest non-nuclear bomb in the US arsenal – is needed because the target, Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant, is built some 300 feet inside a mountain near the city of Qom, two hours south of Tehran.

The heavyweight explosive is known as a GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator and was designed by Boeing for the United States Air Force.

Its huge weight means it can only be delivered with a B-2 Spirit stealth bomber – a jet Israel’s air force does not possess.

John Spencer was in proximity to a bunker buster much smaller than than the one that may be used in Iran. He described the experience as “teeth rattling.” Courtesy of John Spencer

“The United States controls the bomber and the bomb,” John Spencer, chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point military academy, told The Post. “It would be an American plane and an American munition.”

The missile cost over $500 million for the US Army to develop, and was built to specifications which would allow it to penetrate deep enough into the Fordow plant to destroy the nuclear centrifuges in the complex, according to a 2013 article in the Wall Street Journal, which said at that time 20 of the bombs had been manufactured for the US military.

If the US does opt to help Israel with this extraordinarily powerful weapon, it will almost certainly turn the nuclear facility, protected by layers of granite and steel, to rubble.

“By weight and kinetic force, the GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator is designed to penetrate a certain amount of distance into the ground before it blows,” said Spencer.

“That’s why these...

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KEYWORDS: iranfafo; mullahloversonfr