There has been much press about the Fordow nuclear site in Iran. Lots of stories about what it really was, what damage was done to it by the “bunker buster” munitions last week.
We have heard from CNN, the propaganda arm for the Democratic Party. According to CNN, before the attack, Iran was not anywhere close to weaponizing a nuclear munition. Afterwards the storyline was that Iran’s nuclear enrichment program only suffered a short setback, perhaps a couple of months.
There was much talk about “intent.” This issue was never about intent. It was always about the capability to annihilate the planet which the rogue government in Iran was willing to advertise doing starting with America and Israel. So, they built a facility under the mountain at Fordow. The underground facility was thought to consist of two main tunnels that house centrifuges used to enrich uranium, as well as a network of smaller tunnels. Iran went ahead and enriched uranium to 60%. This was confirmed from multiple sources including Iran. This is clearly not an effort for a peaceful civilian nuclear program.
The Iranians thought that the mountain would be sufficient protection from bombs, missiles, etc. So, what did the US do in then face of this threat? Was the GBU-57 just some off-the-shelf bomb that the Pentagon decided to use in hopes it would work? Or was it the result of a more detailed and long-range effort?
As it turns out, the GBU-57 was specifically designed for Fordow.
General Caine:
“In 2009, a [DTRA] officer was brought into a vault at an undisclosed location and briefed on something going on in Iran. He was shown some photos and some highly classified intelligence of what looked like a major construction project in the mountains of Iran. He was tasked to study this facility, work with the intelligence community to understand it, and he was soon joined by an additional teammate.”
The two studied satellite photographs of the site extensively. Eventually they came to the conclusion that the United States had no conventional weapon that could penetrate the 250 feet of granite protecting the underground production halls and destroy them.
General Caine:
“They began a journey to work with industry and other tacticians to develop the GBU-57. They tested it over and over again, tried different options, tried more after that — they accomplished hundreds of test shots and dropped many full-scale weapons against extremely realistic targets, for a single purpose: kill this target at the time and place of our nation’s choosing.”
The ordinance was delivered on target (about the size of a washing machine) and did what it was designed to do. Satellite photos confirm this.
Will Iran try to reconstitute this program? You can bet that surveillance of Iranian efforts — if any — to reconstitute nuclear weapons is and will continue to be extensive, and President Trump has made clear that any such construction will be bombed again. Can there be any doubt in the minds of Iranian leaders about Trump’s meaning and intents?
Why did our country go to such efforts? Because it was crystal clear to most analysts that the site was dedicated to making a nuclear weapon. And that could not be allowed to those who have chanted over and over “Death to America, death to Israel.”
Kudos to all those who clearly saw the threat and worked long and hard to be ready to neutralize it.