Posted on 01/12/2012 8:43:55 PM PST by sukhoi-30mki
Iran nuclear sites may be beyond reach of "bunker busters"
(Reuters) - With its nuclear program beset as never before by sanctions, sabotage and assassination, Iran must now make a new addition to its list of concerns: One of the biggest conventional bombs ever built.
Boeing's 30,000-pound Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP), an ultra-large bunker buster for use on underground targets, with Iran routinely mentioned as its most likely intended destination, is a key element in the implicit U.S. threat to use force as a last report against Iran's nuclear ambitions.
The behemoth, carrying more than 5,300 pounds of explosive, was delivered with minimal fanfare to Whiteman U.S. Air Force Base, Missouri in September. It is designed for delivery by B-2 Stealth bombers.
Would that weapon, delivered in a gouging combination with other precision-guided munitions, pulverize enough rock to reach down and destroy the uranium enrichment chamber sunk deep in a mountain at Fordow, Iran's best sheltered nuclear site?
While the chances of such a strike succeeding are slim, they are not so slim as to enable Tehran to rule out the possibility of one being attempted, according to defense experts contacted by Reuters.
A "second best" result might be merely to block the plant's surface entrances, securing its temporary closure, some said.
One U.S. official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, described an attack on the underground site, about 160 km (100 miles) south of Tehran near the Iranian holy city of Qom, as "hard but not impossible."
The United States is the only country with any chance of damaging the Fordow chamber using just conventional air power, most experts say.
Israel, the nation seen as most likely to attempt a raid, has great experience in long range bombing include its 1981 raid on the Osirak nuclear
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Well we will never know until we try. I say let’s stop all the chit chat and get on with it...
Such bunkers have to have a way in and out...
Leftist Media planting seeds of doubt, who would have thunk it!
If you lined 3 or 4 of these in sequence, 30 seconds apart, wouldn’t that just keep digging the hole deeper until it was sufficient?
I was thinking the same.
Who said it had to be a “conventional” weapon?
Might be just as effective to bomb that damnable well...
If you lined 3 or 4 of these in sequence, 30 seconds apart, wouldn’t that just keep digging the hole deeper until it was sufficient?
I think you’re right. The Soviets had planned to do just that, but with nukes, on Cheyenne Mountain, CO, NORAD HQ. I think it’s called “Hammering”.
Someone will correct me, I’m sure.
Nuke it. We can be sure then...
Not everyone in power believes we should have the means to go after such sites....
Sad, but true...
We of course have non-conventional cruise missiles that are also flyable into tunnel openings.
We can always use that earthquake machine that Chavez is always rambling on about :)
Who said it had to be a “conventional” weapon? Not me! Use whatever it takes! Even Seal team 6!
Yep. B-61 Mod 11. Digs in a bit and goes BOOM!
I heard that idea several years ago, but it involved spacing them closely enough that the follow-on bomb hit while the rubble from its predecesor was still in the air.
Drop Obama into an administrative position in the program. Their program will be in an absolute shambles rather quickly and the budget will skyrocket.
That is correct Pox. There is a way in and out. Power gets in.
Why don’t the smart ones in the Pentagon just plan for destroying the power source. It takes alot of juice to run that operation, especially the centrifuges. they are piping in electricity, or generating it on site. Destroy the fuel and electric lines along with the sources. When they fix it, watch them with the eyes in the sky and destroy it again, and again.
You could do that the old fashioned ways, carpet bomb it, or with a deluge of cruise missles.
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