# Only a bunker buster bomb can bust Iran's Fordo nuclear complex. Really? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 18, 2025, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-a-bunker-buster-bomb-can-bust-irans-fordo-nuclear-complex-really/1019792 "2025-06-18T06:12:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2025, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-a-bunker-buster-bomb-can-bust-irans-fordo-nuclear-complex-really/1019792/1 "2025-06-18T06:12:15Z")
The US has a 30,000 pound bomb named the [GBU-57 A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GBU-57A/B_MOP), one or several of which are suppose to be able to destroy Iran’s Fordo nuclear enrichment facility, located under maybe 80 meters of rock and soil. Reports vary. The facility allegedly has 4 entrances. Could a military engineer explain to me why transforming the 4 doorways to rubble wouldn’t solve the problem? I understand that nuclear enrichment requires workers and workers need to go to and from the job site. Or is permanently destroying the entrance to a mine shaft more difficult than leveling the whole mountain? ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2025, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-a-bunker-buster-bomb-can-bust-irans-fordo-nuclear-complex-really/1019792/2 "2025-06-18T06:46:07Z")
Destroying the entrances would trap people inside, but it would leave the facility intact. We also don’t know what sort of survival supplies are inside, either. Such a plan might cause some deaths, but probably not for all (at least not immediately). They might have enough to survive long enough for entrances to be cleared or a new shaft dug for exit of people and/or resupply. Also, there might be an entrance/exit we are not aware of. Even if we manage to kill everyone inside the supplies and machinery might survive to be used again. Whereas if we have a bomb that can penetrate into the mountain, to the heart of the facility, and directly destroy machinery and material, it really screws with the overall program and might even require the Iranians start over from scratch. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2025, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-a-bunker-buster-bomb-can-bust-irans-fordo-nuclear-complex-really/1019792/3 "2025-06-18T06:46:46Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > Could a military engineer explain to me why transforming the 4 doorways to rubble wouldn’t solve the problem? I’m no military engineer, but digging a new entrance hardly seems like an insurmountable obstacle. The contents of the bunker have to be destroyed to make any strike a successful one. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2025, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-a-bunker-buster-bomb-can-bust-irans-fordo-nuclear-complex-really/1019792/4 "2025-06-18T07:02:46Z")
Maybe the trick is dig sideways for 20 meters, then setup the elevators. So cave-ins won’t be an issue. If Israel owns the Iranian skies, they could bomb the entrances for a while. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2025, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-a-bunker-buster-bomb-can-bust-irans-fordo-nuclear-complex-really/1019792/5 "2025-06-18T13:15:59Z")
My understanding why only that bomb and only the U.S. is that the weight and size means only a B2 bomber can deliver it. And no one else has a bomber that big. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2025, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-a-bunker-buster-bomb-can-bust-irans-fordo-nuclear-complex-really/1019792/6 "2025-06-18T13:28:07Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > My understanding why only that bomb and only the U.S. is that the weight and size means only a B2 bomber can deliver it. This bomb can easily be carried by a C-130, and Israel operates C-130s. But even though Israel has given Iran’s SEAD/DEAD capabilities a pretty good pounding, there may still be some risk of anti-aircraft fire, so a stealthy aircraft is needed. Of course that’s one interpretation. There are other possible political explanations about why certain American politicians might want to join the fray, but this is FQ so I’ll leave off. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2025, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-a-bunker-buster-bomb-can-bust-irans-fordo-nuclear-complex-really/1019792/7 "2025-06-18T13:29:05Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > Could a military engineer explain to me why transforming the 4 doorways to rubble wouldn’t solve the problem? It’s very easy to dig out a new shaft if the tunnels below are still intact. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2025, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-a-bunker-buster-bomb-can-bust-irans-fordo-nuclear-complex-really/1019792/8 "2025-06-18T13:35:47Z")
IANA military engineer but they would surely have lateral tunnels running a long way from the bunker. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2025, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-a-bunker-buster-bomb-can-bust-irans-fordo-nuclear-complex-really/1019792/9 "2025-06-18T13:54:14Z")
From the New York Times, > There is only one weapon for the job, experts contend. It is called the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, or the GBU-57, and it weighs so much — 30,000 pounds — that it can be lifted only by a B-2 bomber. Israel does not own either the weapon or the bomber needed to get it aloft and over target. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2025, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-a-bunker-buster-bomb-can-bust-irans-fordo-nuclear-complex-really/1019792/10 "2025-06-18T14:08:57Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > I’m no military engineer, but digging a new entrance hardly seems like an insurmountable obstacle. Yes, this is the issue. In war, the effectiveness of striking at infrastructure is directly proportional to the difficulty of repairing or replacing that infrastructure. Dams and bridges are good targets, because they take years to build new ones. It’s hard to do that in the middle of a war. With this bunker, the entrances are the least complicated part, and moving rubble just isn’t that hard. The parts that would be difficult to replace are all much harder to hit, that being the whole point of the bunker. Iran has spent decades building these facilities, so a few days or weeks delays while they clear out a tunnel or two isn’t going to have any appreciable impact on the ability to function. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2025, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-a-bunker-buster-bomb-can-bust-irans-fordo-nuclear-complex-really/1019792/11 "2025-06-18T14:09:30Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > This bomb can easily be carried by a C-130, and Israel operates C-130s. But even though Israel has given Iran’s SEAD/DEAD capabilities a pretty good pounding, there may still be some risk of anti-aircraft fire, so a stealthy aircraft is needed. By weight alone, if a modified 747 can carry the space shuttle, you could probably carry a 30,000 lbs bomb too. Whether you could safely get it over hostile territory and properly drop the payload is another question. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2025, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-a-bunker-buster-bomb-can-bust-irans-fordo-nuclear-complex-really/1019792/12 "2025-06-18T16:21:41Z")
Well Israel is supposed to have 90 or so nuclear weapons–so they would likely work. And with continuing massive radiation at the site Iran is not likely to rebuild. There would of course be a massive worldwide negative reaction. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2025, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-a-bunker-buster-bomb-can-bust-irans-fordo-nuclear-complex-really/1019792/13 "2025-06-18T16:24:04Z")
I was imagining massive cave-ins around the entrances to the complex would make clearing them structurally hazardous but… > [@Babale](#): > > It’s very easy to dig out a new shaft if the tunnels below are still intact. …I didn’t consider this workaround. Another hypothetical military option could involve continuing air superiority with regular bombing runs in the area. Except Iran isn’t a small country however weakened and a drawn out war may not work to Israel’s advantage. Israel has considered placing bombs deep inside the mountain with commando raids, but those are obviously risky. ETA below: FYI only: Estimates of the depth of the Fordo complex vary. I took the 80 meter number from a real source, but it’s an inherently soft number. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2025, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-a-bunker-buster-bomb-can-bust-irans-fordo-nuclear-complex-really/1019792/14 "2025-06-18T16:25:08Z")
Would Israel’s nuclear weapons destroy the complex that, according to the OP is 80 meters below ground, or leave it intact, though perhaps shaken? ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2025, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-a-bunker-buster-bomb-can-bust-irans-fordo-nuclear-complex-really/1019792/15 "2025-06-18T16:25:56Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > Israel has considered placing bombs deep inside the mountain with commando raids, but those are obviously risky. According to a claim made in a WSJ opinion piece, there was a planned commando raid to do exactly that that was compromised and scuttled by some of the leaks from Tulsi Gabbard’s office. ---
**Author:** ![Dissonance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dissonance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dissonance)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2025, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-a-bunker-buster-bomb-can-bust-irans-fordo-nuclear-complex-really/1019792/16 "2025-06-18T17:42:59Z")
Depends heavily on the size of the warhead and the means of delivery, and everything publicly available about the Israeli nuclear arsenal is conjecture; Israel will neither confirm nor deny that it even has nuclear weapons. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2025, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-a-bunker-buster-bomb-can-bust-irans-fordo-nuclear-complex-really/1019792/17 "2025-06-18T17:44:12Z")
Do you think perhaps that Israel’s military and intelligence community, who are not idiots, have not considered the possibility of using a nuclear warhead? ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2025, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-a-bunker-buster-bomb-can-bust-irans-fordo-nuclear-complex-really/1019792/18 "2025-06-18T17:51:02Z")
Undoubtedly they have. However, using nukes has repercussions. If the same goal can be achieved with “conventional” weapons then there is a lot of impetus to do it that way. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2025, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-a-bunker-buster-bomb-can-bust-irans-fordo-nuclear-complex-really/1019792/19 "2025-06-18T20:30:37Z")
For what it is worth, the only thing Israel says about nuclear weapons is they will not be the first to use them. Somewhere on the web it was suggested that it would require two bunker busters to get through. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2025, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-a-bunker-buster-bomb-can-bust-irans-fordo-nuclear-complex-really/1019792/20 "2025-06-18T22:45:38Z")
There is the small problem that if the bunker-buster MOAB’s are successful they could release radioactive materials into the air. Not as a nuclear explosion, but as debris from a conventional explosion, albeit a very large one. Basically turning the “nuclear facility” into a dirty bomb site. A sufficiently deep crater will _help_ contain it, but there will still be a lot of dust kicked up and some of it will be “spicy” and “hot”. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-a-bunker-buster-bomb-can-bust-irans-fordo-nuclear-complex-really/1019792.md?page=2)