Latest news with #GBU-57MassiveOrdnancePenetrators
Daily Mirror
an hour ago
- Politics
- Daily Mirror
Inside Trump's attack on Iran nuke bases with 'bunker buster' bombs and missiles
The major US operation is said to have targeted Iran's nuclear sites using some of its most powerful weapons, according to Donald Trump - including six 30,000lb bunker-busting bombs The US has said it used six bunker-buster bombs and submarine missiles to "obliterate" Iran's nuclear bases in a move it called a "spectacular military success". President Donald Trump announced on social media that the attack included a strike on the heavily protected Fordow enrichment plant, buried deep under a mountain in the Iranian city of Qom. The other sites blitzed during the early hours of Sunday morning were at Natanz and Isfahan. Taking to Truth Social, Trump confirmed the attack, saying: "We have completed our very successful attack on the three nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. All planes are now outside of Iran air space. A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow. "All planes are safely on their way home. Congratulations to our great American Warriors. There is not another military in the World that could have done this. NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE! Thank you for your attention to this matter," he added. The major US operation is said to have targeted Iran's nuclear sites using some of its most powerful weapons. According to Trump, six 30,000lb bunker-busting bombs - called GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators - were used to hit Iran's most protected facility, the US President told Fox News. The bombs were dropped by six B-2 bombers, which reportedly flew from Missouri and stayed in the air for 37 hours, the New York Times reports. They had to refuel multiple times mid-air so they wouldn't have to land, and were chosen because the Fordow nuclear site, buried 300 feet underground and surrounded by steel, is difficult to destroy. Trump said Israel couldn't hit the site alone, but that the US could - and now has. Each missile, about 20 feet long with a 5,000lb warhead, was designed to pierce deep into the ground before detonating. Iran, however, claimed it knew the attack was coming and had already removed anything of value from Fordow. Still, the US also hit other nuclear sites - Natanz and Isfahan. Thirty Tomahawk missiles were reportedly fired from submarines stationed 400 miles away. These are long-range weapons, launched from sea or land, that can travel over 1,000 miles. The US has a naval base nearby in Bahrain. Natanz is home to Iran's largest uranium enrichment plant, which plays a key role in producing weapons-grade material. One of the B-2s also dropped two bunker busters on the site, the New York Times reported. Isfahan, another key site, is believed to store uranium that's almost weapons-grade. Both facilities had already been targeted in earlier Israeli strikes. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, confirmed that Natanz was badly damaged in the earlier Israeli assault. He said: "The above-ground part of the pilot fuel enrichment plant, where Iran was producing uranium enriched up to 60% U-235, has been destroyed." Uranium-235 is a key material used for both nuclear power and weapons. Iran retaliated with a series of missile and drone strikes in Israel and warned of "everlasting" consequences after the US attack. Foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said the strikes "will have everlasting consequences" and that his country "reserves all options" to retaliate. Keir Starmer meanwhile said Tehran can never be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon and responded to the attack, and called Iran's nuclear programme "a grave threat to international security." He said: "Iran can never be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon and the US has taken action to alleviate that threat. "The situation in the Middle East remains volatile and stability in the region is a priority. We call on Iran to return to the negotiating table and reach a diplomatic solution to end this crisis."
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Business Standard
4 hours ago
- Politics
- Business Standard
US strikes 3 nuclear sites in Iran, Tehran vows retaliation: What we know
The United States has formally entered the Iran-Israel conflict, with President Donald Trump confirming that American warplanes struck three major Iranian nuclear facilities on Sunday. The move, aimed at weakening Tehran's nuclear programme, marks Washington's most direct intervention in the conflict so far. Iran has vowed to retaliate, warning of a potential regional war. Three nuclear sites hit in precision strikes The three sites struck—Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan—are central to Iran's nuclear infrastructure. Fordow, a deeply buried uranium enrichment plant south of Tehran, has long been viewed as one of Iran's most protected facilities. US officials confirmed the use of GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators, or 'bunker buster' bombs, each weighing over 13,000 kg and capable of penetrating reinforced underground structures. Trump said the strikes were a 'historic moment' and described them as 'the most difficult and perhaps the most lethal' action taken so far. 'We have completed our very successful attack… All planes are safely on their way home,' he said. President Donald J. Trump's full remarks on the precision strikes against Iran's three key nuclear facilities — Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) June 22, 2025 While Trump claimed the facilities were 'completely and totally obliterated", Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation insisted that the sites had been evacuated earlier and that 'no radioactive release' had been detected. A statement from Iran's nuclear safety authority added that 'there is no danger to residents living around the aforementioned sites". Trump's rationale behind ordering strikes Trump said the intervention was necessary to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, a stance he has maintained since withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear deal. The US administration contacted Iran through back channels before the strike, stating that regime change was 'not planned' and that Sunday's operation was intended as a standalone message. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said: 'This is an HISTORIC MOMENT FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ISRAEL, AND THE WORLD. IRAN MUST NOW AGREE TO END THIS WAR (sic).' Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the US move, calling it a 'bold decision' and thanking Trump for acting with 'righteous might.' According to Israeli officials, the strikes were carried out in 'full co-ordination' with the Israeli Defence Forces. The two allies have been conducting parallel operations since Israel launched surprise attacks on Iranian military and nuclear assets on June 13. How the war began The current conflict erupted when Israel accused Iran of nearing nuclear weapons capability and launched an extensive aerial campaign to destroy its facilities. In response, Iran fired hundreds of rockets and drones at Israeli targets, triggering an intense aerial exchange that has lasted more than a week. While Iran insists its nuclear ambitions are peaceful, Netanyahu has said the country was weeks away from producing a nuclear bomb. Trump, long opposed to Iranian nuclear capability, had warned Tehran just days earlier to negotiate or face military action—a warning that was acted upon faster than expected. Why did US decide to enter Iran-Israel conflict US and Israeli officials say the strikes were necessary due to the depth and fortification of the targeted sites. Israel's weaponry could not penetrate Fordow's defences, prompting calls for US involvement. The GBU-57 bomb, which can reach depths of 60–90 metres, is believed to be the only conventional weapon capable of damaging Fordow. In the aftermath of the strikes, Israel raised its security alert nationwide, closing airspace and banning public gatherings. The US has bolstered its military presence in the region, placing bases across Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE on high alert and deploying additional air defence systems. Iran's threats of retaliation Iran has condemned the US strikes and vowed to respond. Officials have hinted at targeting US military bases across the region and disrupting key shipping lanes, including the Strait of Hormuz, which carries nearly a third of global oil traffic. Tehran also warned it may target countries seen to be aiding the US, fuelling fears of a wider regional conflict. Iranian proxies such as Hezbollah and the Houthi rebels in Yemen may also be activated. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei earlier warned that any American intervention would bring 'irreparable damage' and could spark 'an all-out war.' UN concerned over escalation UN Secretary-General António Guterres expressed deep alarm over the US strikes, saying the situation risked spiralling out of control. 'There is a growing risk that this conflict could rapidly get out of control—with catastrophic consequences for civilians, the region, and the world,' he said. The International Atomic Energy Agency has confirmed that Iran had been enriching uranium at Fordow prior to the strike but said there were no signs of radioactive contamination in the surrounding area after the attack. (With inputs from Associated Press)
The Hill
8 hours ago
- Politics
- The Hill
5 takeaways as US enters war with Iran, strikes nuclear sites
President Trump announced Saturday night that the United States has bombed three nuclear sites in Iran, engaging U.S. forces in a war that Israel launched two weeks ago. In a brief address on Saturday night, Trump warned of continued U.S. attacks on Iran if 'peace does not come quickly.' 'This cannot continue,' he said, flanked by Vice President Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. 'There will be either peace or there will be tragedy for Iran, far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days,' Trump said. The White House had said on Thursday that Trump would make a decision on bombing Iran within two weeks, but B-2 bombers started crossing the Pacific on Saturday afternoon. Trump announced the 'very successful' strikes in a Truth Social post around 8 p.m. EDT Saturday. In his remarks on Saturday night, the president said those facilities 'have been completely and totally obliterated.' Here are the key takeaways on the bombings: In his Truth Social post, Trump said 'a full payload of BOMBS' was dropped on Iran's primary nuclear enrichment plant, Fordow — a deep underground facility viewed as key to Tehran's nuclear program — as well as on Natanz and Isfahan. Fox News's Sean Hannity, who said he spoke with the president, reported that six 'bunker buster' bombs were dropped on the Fordow facility, and that 30 tomahawk missiles were fired at Natanz and Isfahan from submarines hundreds of miles away. Trump, in his address, said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine would give a press conference on the strikes at 8 a.m. EDT Sunday. Experts say the 30,000-pound bunker busters, officially known as the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators, could penetrate the mountain where Fordow is located, had reportedly been requested by Israel. In the hours before the U.S. unleashed airstrikes, the Defense Department reportedly moved B-2 bombers, the only aircraft capable of dropping the GBU-57, from their holding base in Missouri to across the Pacific to Guam. Iranian officials and state media have confirmed the bombings, but said the three nuclear facilities had previously been evacuated. The immediate response from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle pointed to the deep divisions over whether the U.S. should enter a new war in the Middle East. 'This is not Constitutional,' Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) posted on X. Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) struck a similar note, referencing Trump's post announcing the attacks, which said, 'Thank you for your attention to this matter.' 'According to the Constitution we are both sworn to defend, my attention to this matter comes BEFORE bombs fall. Full stop,' Himes wrote. Massie had sponsored legislation that would have required congressional approval for any strikes on Iran. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) reacted to the news during a rally in Tulsa, Okla., calling it 'grossly unconstitutional' after the crowd chanted 'no more war.' Leading Republicans and at least one Democrat were supportive of the attacks. 'The President's decisive action prevents the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism, which chants 'Death to America,' from obtaining the most lethal weapon on the planet. This is America First policy in action,' Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) wrote on X. 'Good. This was the right call. The regime deserves it,' Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) wrote on X. Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), meanwhile, said Trump had made 'a deliberate —and correct— decision to eliminate the existential threat posed by the Iranian regime.' Sen. John Fetterman (D-Penn.) also backed the strikes. 'As I've long maintained, this was the correct move by @POTUS . Iran is the world's leading sponsor of terrorism and cannot have nuclear capabilities,' he wrote on X. Some 40,000 U.S. service members are spread out across the Middle East at bases in Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, offering Iran a broad opportunity to hit back at American citizens, equipment and interests. In the days before the U.S. strike on Iran, Tehran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned that any American military intervention in its conflict with Israel 'will undoubtedly be accompanied by irreparable damage.' And on Saturday, a news anchor on Iranian state television declared that Trump, 'started it, and we will end it,' seeming to refer to a larger conflict between Washington and Tehran. The broadcast also showed a graphic of American bases in the Middle East with the headline, 'Within the fire range of Iran,' as reported by The New York Times. Experts say Iran within hours could decide to launch a retaliatory strike on the nearby Al-Asad Air Base in Iraq or other locations closest to its borders, and within minutes of such a decision could have its missiles delivered. 'If [Iran] had the ballistic missiles ready to go, those strikes could happen in under 15 minutes. Launched to target,' retired Col. Seth Krummrich, vice president at security consultancy firm Global Guardian, told The Hill on Friday. A former Special Forces officer in Iraq and Afghanistan, Krummrich also predicted that if the U.S. were to use the GBU-57, 'you would see an Iranian missile strike aimed at one or multiple U.S. bases.' Tehran last significantly targeted U.S. troops in January 2020 after Trump, in his first term, ordered an airstrike that killed Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran's elite Quds Force. Iran reacted swiftly, days later hammering Al-Asad and another U.S. base in Erbil with 13 ballistic missiles in the largest such attack ever against U.S. forces abroad. No Americans were killed in the strikes but more than 100 were later diagnosed and treated for traumatic brain injuries. The strikes came less than 48 hours after Trump said he would make up his mind within two weeks, suggesting there was still time for a diplomatic solution. 'Based on the fact that there's a substantial chance of negotiation that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go in the next two weeks,' Trump said in a statement read aloud by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Friday afternoon. The U.S. has reportedly maintained dialogue with Iranian officials since Israel first struck Iran on June 13, but Trump had expressed growing skepticism about the chances of a deal. Iran has reportedly agreed to resume direct talks with the U.S. after a meeting between European foreign ministers and Iran's top diplomat on Friday. This weekend saw a flurry of diplomatic activity across the Middle East. Ambassadors from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait on Saturday met with Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to express concerns about the consequences of a U.S. attack. It could take days for the U.S., Israel and IAEA to assess the damage from the U.S. strikes, which were carried out in close coordination with the Israeli Defense Forces. One of the key questions will be how much the U.S. strikes, together with over a week of Israeli attacks, have set back Tehran's nuclear program. Trump said in recent days he believed Iran was on the verge of being able to build a nuclear bomb, though U.S. intelligence agencies believed it would take more than a year for Tehran to turn enriched uranium into a usable nuclear weapon. Israeli officials have also suggested that regime change in Iran is among the goals of their war, and that Khamenei could be a target for assassination. Iran's supreme leader, believed to be hiding out in a bunker, has named three senior clerics to replace him should he die, according to The New York Times. On Iranian state television after the attacks, an anchor said, 'Mr. Trump, you started it, and we will end it,' along with a graphic of American bases in the Middle East within Iran's reach, according to the Times. Both Russia and China had condemned Israel's war on Iran and are certain to criticize the U.S. strikes too. However, Russia has shown little interest in sending military support to Iran.
India Today
9 hours ago
- Politics
- India Today
US dropped 6 GBU-57 bunker buster bombs on Fordow nuclear site in Iran: Report
The United States dropped six GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) bombs in recent airstrikes on Iran's Fordow nuclear facility, according to a report by Reuters. The strikes were carried out using B-2 Spirit stealth bombers, each capable of carrying two of the 30,000-pound (15-ton) bunker-buster munitions designed to destroy deeply buried and hardened targets. The confirmation came after President Donald Trump publicly announced the operations on in the day, Reuters had reported on the movement of B-2 aircraft, capable of carrying powerful bunker-busting munitions, such as the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator, which defense experts consider highly effective against fortified underground B-2 Spirit stealth bomber is capable of carrying two GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators (MOPs), each weighing 30,000 pounds (15 tons), specifically engineered to destroy deeply buried and hardened targets, such as Iran's Fordow nuclear facility. The B-2 Spirit stealth bomber is capable of carrying two GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators (MOPs). Due to its immense size, the B-2 is typically limited to carrying two MOPs per mission, although it may be configured to carry additional munitions depending on the payload capacity, according to The National GBU-57 is capable of penetrating up to 200 feet of earth or 60 feet of reinforced concrete, making it ideally suited for neutralizing heavily fortified underground installations.
Hindustan Times
3 days ago
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
America's huge bunker-busting bomb is not sure to work in Iran
ISRAELI AIR strikes have destroyed some buildings on the surface of Iran's nuclear facilities, but the heart of the operation at sites such as the Fordow fuel-enrichment plant is still likely to be intact, hidden deep underground. Destroying this type of facility requires bunker-busting bombs more powerful than anything Israel can deliver. Donald Trump, America's president, has indicated in recent days that he is coming around to the idea of helping. On June 17th he warned 'our patience is wearing thin' with Iran. Reaching Iran's bunkers will take a special kind of bomb: the US Air Force's GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators (MOP). The MOP is a huge weapon weighing 13 tonnes; conventional bombs are closer to one tonne. It is deployed on the UFO-like B-2 stealth bomber—flown exclusively by the US Air Force—which can carry only two at a time. The bomb has never been used in action. The MOP is dropped from high altitude to smash through rock using sheer kinetic energy. It has a narrower profile than general-purpose bombs to concentrate the force in a small area, and most of its weight comes from its thick steel casing. Only 20% of the bomb's total weight is the explosive filler. The casing is a special ultra-strong alloy known as Eglin Steel (named after an Air Force base in Florida where it was developed). A MOP can reportedly penetrate 60 metres of standard concrete (see chart). The bomb was first tested in 2007, and its design has been upgraded several times since. At least 20 are known to have been delivered in the first batch. As with smaller bunker-busters, MOPs are probably fitted with a void-sensing fuse which detects its surroundings and detonates when it emerges from solid rock into a cavity. A facility might have multiple levels, and the fuse can be programmed to explode on the third level underground, for example, in order to cause the most damage. MOPs were developed by America's air force when it found that its existing bunker-busters could not damage Iraqi bunkers during the invasion in 2003. A new weapon had to be rushed into service. The MOP aimed to smash even deeper and harder bunkers being built in Iran and North Korea. However, there are limits to what even the biggest conventional bomb can do. Whereas the MOP can go through over 60 metres of standard concrete, which can withstand 5,000 pounds-per-square-inch (psi) of pressure, that drops to eight metres for concrete of double the strength. In recent years Iran has advanced considerably in the field of Ultra High-Performance Concrete (UHPC), producing material with strengths of 30,000 psi or more. And even if the bomb can break through, hitting the target may not be straightforward. MOPs need great accuracy to be effective and, like most American guided bombs, they rely on GPS satellite guidance. Military GPS is supposed to be jam-resistant, but in Ukraine American-supplied bombs have been severely affected by Russian jamming. In some cases it had reportedly decreased their accuracy from 20 metres to 1,200 metres before fixes helped to restore their accuracy. But jamming techniques have improved too, turning it into a cat-and-mouse game. Israel is less reliant on GPS, and has alternatives such as the SPICE guidance system, which relies on cameras on bombs and uses AI-guided steering to reach the target. Israel has used weapons with SPICE in the current campaign against Iran. America may want to hastily retrofit this—or an American equivalent—to a MOP if America's generals lack confidence in GPS, although this process could take some weeks. No conventional bomb except a MOP has a chance of finishing off Fordow, and only America can supply them. But even if Donald Trump decides to drop one (or even several), it is not assured to succeed.
