Overview

• The United States possesses the GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator, a 30,000-pound precision-guided bomb designed to destroy deeply buried and hardened targets.
• Fordow, Iran’s underground uranium enrichment plant near Qom, lies under roughly 260 to 300 feet of rock, making it inaccessible to conventional munitions.
• Only B-2 Spirit stealth bombers based at Whiteman Air Force Base can operationally carry and deploy the GBU-57, and stockpiles number only a few dozen.
• Experts warn that breaching Fordow’s reinforced tunnels could require multiple GBU-57 strikes and might only delay, not eliminate, Iran’s nuclear program.
• Any U.S. strike on Iranian nuclear sites risks provoking retaliation against regional American forces and escalating the conflict.