Name: This 30,000-lb U.S. Bomb Can Destroy Iran’s Deepest Nuclear Bunkers | WSJ Equipped
Uploaded: 2025-06-23T03:03:51.000Z
Duration: 3 min 42 s
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At 20 feet long and weighing 30,000 pounds, it is the world's largest non-nuclear bomb and can destroy targets buried deep underground, earning it the name Bunker Buster.

To destroy Iran's heavily fortified nuclear facilities, experts say these are the conventional weapons with the best chance of success.

It is called a massive ordnance penetrator.

Here's why the mop represents Israel's best chance at destroying Iran's facilities and why it can't do it alone.

The mop is the largest bunker buster bomb in the US arsenal.

It's designed to penetrate hardened targets and can plow through almost 200 feet of rock before detonating.

Due to the mop's weight, they can only be carried by the biggest bombers, such as B2s.

One bomb is unlikely to burrow deep enough to hit Iran's nuclear facilities by itself.

The metal is going to melt at some point, and so it does have limitations in terms of how far it can penetrate.

And that's why you may have to follow it up with multiple instances, you drive a wedge in, it expands and then you continue to drive it in the second time and each time it's more effective.

In a sense, you're trying to create an earthquake.

Uh, you're trying to crack the mountain and to channel that that that seismic energy down, uh, to uh, make whatever is under there, whatever facility is under there, uh, uh, shake around a lot.

The mop is equipped with advanced guidance systems including GPS to allow for accurate targeting.

It is also fitted with a delayed fuse, which allows the bomb to explode after it has penetrated its target.

You can wait until it gets down in there before it blows up because you want to maximize the energy, every foot counts in order to get it deeper to uh, to burrow down and to have the uh, have the effect.

Since it launched its campaign against Iran's nuclear program, Israel has damaged critical nuclear infrastructure and killed scientists.

Iran has denied trying to build nuclear weapons and says its nuclear program is peaceful.

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran already has enough highly enriched uranium to make around 10 nuclear weapons.

Satellite images have shown damage at nuclear facilities, including Iran's largest enrichment facility, Natanz.

But one key location remains unscathed, the Fordow fuel enrichment plant, where Iran produces highly enriched uranium.

It's hidden in the mountains and is believed to be buried up to 295 feet below ground.

It's harder to hit deliberately so, uh, because the Iranians buried it under a mountain.

Look, the US put Norad, uh, under Cheyenne Mountain.

And uh, you want to raise the threshold of your adversaries to hit something, sometimes it's just really useful to bury it.

While Israel has bunker busters, none of the ones in its arsenal are powerful enough to penetrate deep enough to hit Fordow.

This is uh why the Israelis probably need US assistance.

Israelis have a lot of bombs, but they need uh things that can kind of crack the mountain uh and and create a wedge to create the tremors and to create vibrations that will be helpful to uh to destroy the facility.

In addition to lacking the weapons to destroy Fordow, Israel also lacks the heavy bombers.

Uh, fundamentally, there's a choice here to be made about whether it is in the US national interest to take out Fordow.

To take out the the Iranian nuclear program once and for all.