Overview

• Israel’s Operation Rising Lion has damaged above-ground nuclear sites at Natanz and Isfahan but has not breached the Fordow enrichment plant buried 80–90 meters underground
• The U.S. Air Force’s 30,000-pound GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator, deliverable only by B-2 stealth bombers, is viewed as the sole conventional munition capable of penetrating Fordow’s mountain casing
• Defense Threat Reduction Agency briefings warn that even multiple GBU-57 strikes may collapse tunnels without fully neutralizing the facility and could require additional softening or heavier ordnance
• Lawmakers and Israeli officials are pressing for a coordinated multi-strike operation even as the White House weighs potential back-channel negotiations with Iran
• IAEA director Rafael Grossi and arms experts caution that any attack on Fordow risks radiological contamination and could further destabilize the region