War against Iran: For the first time in action: Mega bomb against Iran’s deep nuclear position

Dozens of fighter jets and tanker, several tarpaulin bombers, massive bunkerbreaking bombs and cruise missiles fired by a submarine: The complex US attack on three Iranian nuclear facilities was “for months”. The USA called the “midnight hammer” was primarily concerned with the destruction of the Fordo, deep underground. Only the US military had the special ammunition to effectively attack the system: the GBU-57 type.

The abbreviation sounds unspectacular, but the destructive power of the massive bunker breaker is huge. The bunker breaker precision-led with a GPS system is around six meters long and 13.6 tons are heavy. Due to its dimensions and the high weight, the bomb can only be thrown off by Type B-2 tarnish caps, which also only has the US military.

A total of 14 of the mega bombs were thrown off when using seven tap broms, most of them on the particularly deep facility for Fordo. However, the massive bunker breakers were also used against underground institutions in the nuclear system of Natan, which had already attacked the Israelis in their war, which had been war on in around ten days. U.S. President Donald Trump said after the attack that “no other military could have done it worldwide”. Iran’s decisive plants for uranium enrichment have been completely destroyed, according to Trump.

The bomb rams deep underground before the ignition

The bomb was developed by the manufacturer Boeing on behalf of the US military, especially for deep under rock, thick layers of earth or concrete destinations. With the force of her own weight – accelerated by a drop from great height – the tons -heavy bomb rams the way for your explosive load with a particularly hardened tip. The detonation then only takes place in depth.

“The clipping of the explosive head is made from a special high-performance steel alloy and the design enables a large explosive load while maintaining the integrity of the bomb during the impact,” says an explanatory document of the US military.

The attacks in Iran were the first struggle for the bomb in US history. Previously, she had been thrown several times in a test area of ​​the US air weapon in the sparsely populated southwestern state of New Mexico for test purposes. General chief of staff Dan Caine said that the bombing on Sunday night was completed after around 25 minutes.

According to the “New York Times”, the GBU-57 can drill around 60 meters deep into the underground to ignite its explosive load that weighs up to 2.3 tons. Because the Fordo nuclear system was located deep below the surface of the earth, the US military came to the conclusion that several bombs that were struck in the same place would be necessary to destroy the heavily secured complex. The newspaper quoted estimates that the facility near the city of Ghom should possibly be 80 to 110 meters below the surface. How deep it actually is is unclear.

The GBU-57 bomb is part of a type of bunker breaker, which is also known as MOP under the American abbreviation (“massive order penetrator”; in German, for example, “severe penetrating bomb”).

Bomb drop associated with risks

Expert Heather Williams from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIs) warned of the attack that a use of the GBU-57 against Fordo is also associated with “numerous risks”. “First of all and most importantly: it could be that the bomb fails to completely destroy the facility.” In addition, the US government must take into account the risk that Iran could then attack US bases in the region as a retaliation.

The US military has stationed around 40,000 soldiers there. Support points such as in Bahrain and Qatar on the Persian Gulf, the crow flies are not far from Iran, could easily be the goal. In addition, Iran could also have US goals attacked by allied Shiite militias in the neighboring country.

After the attack, Trump warned the leadership in Tehran with a drastic threat of not making retribution strokes against US goals. In capital letters, he wrote on Truth Social: “Any retaliation of Iran against the United States will be answered with a much larger force than it could be observed tonight.”

Use with the help of tanker aircraft?

The tarpaulin bombers with a range of up to 9,600 kilometers required to drop the GBU-57 are regularly stationed in the U.S. state Missouri at the WHITEMAN Air Force base-i.e. around 11,000 kilometers of Fordo. When used over larger distances, the bombers must be refueled in the air. An earlier B-2 use in Afghanistan, confirmed by the US Air Force, shows that this does not have to be an obstacle. The state on the Hindu Kush is a little further away from Whiteman than Iran.

According to the US military, “dozens of” tanker aircraft were involved in the complex attack against Iran. They are also likely to have filled up the numerous fighter planes in the air that the bombers escorted into Iranian airspace.

According to media reports, the Air Force has around 20 of these billioners. The GBU-57 is reportedly only available in small numbers. According to 2015, the Air Force had ordered 20 pieces of it.

Why is Fordo so important?

According to Israeli information, the well -protected facility near the city of Ghom was the most important remaining goal when it comes to preventing the construction of an Iranian nuclear weapon. Israel has already attacked other important goals of the nuclear program in Natan, Tehran and Isfahan.

In Fordo, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), hundreds of centrifuges at the excess of overflow can be produced, with which almost consolidated uranium can be produced with a purity degree of up to 60 percent. The political leadership in Tehran does not strive for nuclear weapons. However, there are doubts about this representation – also because Iran is the only country to produce such high -enriched uranium without nuclear weapons.

Trump hopes that the bombing of the remaining significant nuclear facilities by the United States will bring Iran to the negotiating table again in order to guarantee the most extensive task of the nuclear program.