If the United States has entered the conflict between Israel and Iran, it is expected to play a key role in the destruction of the Iranian underground uranium enrichment facilities.
This task would almost certainly fall on a selected number of US bomber aircraft that are large enough to deliver a 30,000 pound precision bomb that is known as GBU-57 E/B Massive Ordnance Pensiderator or Mopp-the most powerful non-nuclear bomb.
The 6 m long MOP, which was ejected by a B2 stealth bomber, can report more than 60 meters of rock and floor-Je to penetrate more than 60 meters of rock and floor according to hardness before the earth. Since it is precision, several bombs can theoretically be dropped at one point.
This gives the MOPP, which is more powerful than every well -known conventional bomb in Israel’s arsenal, possibly enough effects to destroy a large part of Iran‘S underground enrichment institutions, in particular the Natanz location, which is assumed that it is covered 20 meters underground and reinforced concrete in about 2 meters.
However, it cannot be enough to destroy the more protected Fordow facility, which is buried in a mountain below up to 80 meters rock and floor-the bomb for this specific purpose was developed.
Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, has explained that some of the most sensitive facilities of Fordow could be buried even deeper, up to half a mile underground.
“I’ve been there many times” Ft this month. “To get there, take a spiral tunnel down, below, below.”
The lack of a guarantee that a successful bombing or even a number of strikes would destroy most or all the nuclear stocks in Fordow that would already be enriched is reminiscent of a similar situation that was exposed to the United States in the past.
When the United States thought about a preventive bomb campaign against Soviet nuclear weapons, which were stationed in Cuba during the 1962 Cuban rocket crisis, a central concern was a potential failure to destroy all goals-a risk calculation that prompted President Kennedy to decide a naval blockade and diplomacy instead.
“The US air weapon was only confident that they could destroy 85 percent of the goals, which is why there were plans for post-observation invasion,” said Robert Pape, a US military historian and author of author of Bombard to winA pioneering survey on bomb campaigns of the 20th century.
“How can the US National Security Council be sure in the Iranian case that you get everything? That is the big problem,” he said.
The MOP produced by Boeing was tested in the White Sands rocket area in New Mexico, but has never been used in the active fight. This may introduce a second problem.
“To destroy Fordow, for which the Mop was expressly designed, would probably take at least two bombs, each of which hit exactly in the same place,” said Pape.
“That may be fine, and I am sure that the US Air Force has the technical skills. But it has never been done in a real war.”
The 22,000 LB predecessor of the MOP, the Massive Ordnance Air Explosion or Moab, which is colloquially known as the mother of all bombs, was less powerful in 2017 in Afghanistan. It was falling on a cave complex that was operated by an Islamic state member in the province of Nangarhar.
The MOP, which developed from 2002, was used for the first time in 2011 and has been improved regularly since then, is a more improved and more targeted version of the Moab: the explosive cargo is larger and is carried into an extremely rigid metal housing that enables penetrating before explosion.
It is assumed that the US arsenal contains about 20 pugs. Each bomb costs around $ 4 million based on an eight of $ 28 million US Air Force Treaty in 2011.
Only the B2 Spirit -stealth -Bomber is configured so that it transports and delivers the mop. There are 20 B2 bombers in service, According to the US air weaponEach of them able to wear two pugs, one in each of his bomb shafts.
The bomber, which was made by Northrop Grumman, has a range of 11,000 km or 19,000 km with a tank in the middle of the air, which is achieved almost every destination in the world.
Despite the fearsome skills of both the MOP and B2 bomber, every mission to destroy the Ford plant would confront other tactical difficulties, said Pape.
The first is that the B2 bomber, in order to fall more than one bomb into the facility, push through its goal and become susceptible to Iranian air defenses.
“The B2 is a stealth bomber, but it was developed to avoid radar – it is not secret in every respect,” said Pape. “For example, it has a very flat floor-to-what can make it as vulnerable as a 737 aircraft for anti-air rockets.”
The second challenge would include deleting a secure flight path for the B2 bomber to its goal. This could be done by the use of anti-radar cruise rockets that could not yet remove all Iranian radar installations that have not yet destroyed Israeli forces.
“But Iran may have expected the United States to cut such a corridor,” said Pape. “The bomb attack may work well – but it should be able to know that it has never been done before.”
Additional graphics by Gaku this
