US began secretly designing bombs specifically to target Iran’s Fordow 15 years ago
By Ryan King
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine revealed that the US began constructing its heavy-duty bunker buster bombs roughly 15 years ago after learning about Iran’s ultra-secretive Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant, which is cut about half a mile into a mountain.
A Defense Threat Reduction Agency officer was briefed about the construction of the site in 2009, and officials quickly determined that the US did not have a “weapon that could adequately strike and kill this target.”
So they began construction of the 30,000-pound GBU-57 series MOP (Massive Ordnance Penetrator) bunker busters.
Satellite view of the Fordow underground complex near Qom, Iran, after a U.S. strike.
A satellite view shows an overview of Fordow underground complex, after the U.S. struck the nuclear facility on June 22, 2025.
via REUTERS
Illustration of how a bunker buster bomb works.
Infographic explains how a bunker buster bomb works.
Merrill Sherman / NY Post Design
“We had so many PhDs, working on the MOP program, doing modeling and simulation that we were quietly and in a secret way, the biggest users of supercomputer hours within the United States of America,” Caine explained during a Thursday press conference.
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“In the GBU-57, which all of you, I know, know, is a 30,000-pound weapon dropped only by the B-2. It’s comprised of steel, explosive and a fuse programmed specifically for each weapon to achieve a particular effect inside the target,” he added.
“Each weapon had a unique desired impact, angle, arrival, final heading and a fuse setting. The fuse is effectively what tells the bomb when to function. A longer delay in a fuse, the deeper the weapon will penetrate and drive into the target.”
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