Inside the GBU-57: The 30,000-pound US bomb designed to destroy underground bunkers like those in Iran
Get up close and personal with the 30,000-pound bomb capable of destroying Iran's Forlow fuel base.
The United States possesses a military weapon capable of destroying Fordow, Iran's fuel enrichment plant. This weapon, known as a bunker-busting bomb called the GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP), is specifically designed to destroy weapons of mass destruction at military installations, according to the United States Air Force. It should be noted that this facility is key to Iran's ability to execute its nuclear program.
The GBU-57A/B bomb has 30,000 pounds of yield, of which 6,000 pounds are high-impact explosives, reported Masao Dahlgren, principal investigator of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
Why only the U.S. bunker buster can reach Iran’s deeply buried Fordow nuclear site
The Fordow facility is difficult to locate because it is located at great depths. This makes it difficult for the base to be attacked by any country other than the United States. “It has a ‘really thick, hard casing,’” Dahlgren commented. “This allows them to withstand the impact of the bomb and penetrate attacks to a depth.”
Dahlgren also explained more details about the bomb: “There’s the casing, the explosive, and the fuse: the explosive has to be tough enough not to detonate unactivated; the casing has to be strong enough to penetrate to that depth and impact with enough energy to reach that far. And then the fuse has to be tough enough to survive all of that, and smart enough to know when to detonate.” “It's a truly complex program,” Dahlgren said.
Diagram showing the structure and components of the GBU-57 MOP, the U.S. Air Force’s 30,000-pound bunker buster designed to penetrate reinforced underground targets. Photo: CNN
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MOP bomb may not be enough to destroy Iran’s Fordow site, experts warn
In a recent report, the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) stated that the MOP would not be able to reach the Fordow and that, if it wanted to take it down, it would likely require multiple attacks and impacts to be able to attack the facility from a very deep level, as its main halls are located between 80 and 90 meters underground.
Bomb testing began in 2004 because, at the time, the United States was concerned about the ongoing weapons of mass destruction in the world at the time. To achieve this, the studies conducted determined the need to create a bomb that would generate enough pressure to destroy an entire facility in a single attack.
