{"id":5357,"date":"2025-06-22T14:01:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-22T14:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/5357\/"},"modified":"2025-06-22T14:01:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-22T14:01:09","slug":"what-we-know-about-the-bunker-buster-bombs-that-hit-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/5357\/","title":{"rendered":"What We Know About the Bunker-Buster Bombs That Hit Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US’s “massive precision strikes” on three Iranian nuclear facilities<\/a> unleashed the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator bunker-buster bomb for the first time in combat.<\/p>\n

In a press briefing Sunday morning, Gen. Dan Caine, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said US forces fired around 75 precision-guided weapons in total during the operation, which targeted facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan. The weapons included 14 GBU-57s.<\/p>\n

The GBU-57, designed to penetrate hardened bunkers, particularly those located deep underground, is among the heaviest and most powerful non-nuclear bombs in the US arsenal.<\/p>\n

Here’s what we know about them.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

The US Air Force says the bomb is designed to target “weapons of mass destruction located in well-protected facilities.”<\/p>\n

Mehmet Yaren Bozgun\/Anadolu via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The GBU-57 weighs roughly 30,000 pounds and can only be carried by the B-2 Spirit bomber. It is approximately 20.5 feet long and has a diameter of 31.5 inches.<\/p>\n

The US Air Force says the bomb is designed to target “weapons of mass destruction located in well-protected facilities” and can penetrate up to 200 feet \u2014 or roughly two-thirds the height of the Statue of Liberty \u2014 below ground before exploding. The depth it can travel depends on the strength of the material it is penetrating.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A mock-up of the Massive Ordnance Penetrator sits in the bomb bay of the B-2 weapons load trainer at Whitman Air Force Base, Mo.<\/p>\n

U.S Air Force.<\/p>\n

Iran’s Fordow facility is thought to be a key site for Tehran’s nuclear enrichment activities, but its location \u2014 buried deep under a mountain \u2014 means Israel likely lacks the firepower to take it out on its own, according<\/a> to Heather Williams, a senior fellow in the Defense and Security Department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.<\/p>\n

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Multiple hits by a GBU-57, however, could destroy it, she said.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump, who said late Saturday that a “full payload” of bombs had been used to strike Fordow, praised US forces for what he called a “very successful attack.”<\/p>\n

\"Bunker-buster<\/p>\n

The US strikes involved 14 GBU-57 bunker-buster bombs.<\/p>\n

Murat Usubali\/Anadolu via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Trump called for peace in the aftermath of the US strikes on the nuclear sites<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The attacks are a significant escalation in the ongoing conflict. Earlier this month, Israel launched an intense air campaign<\/a> against Iran aimed at degrading its nuclear capabilities. Tehran, which has said its nuclear program is for civilian purposes, has retaliated against Israel with heavy missile and drone strikes.<\/p>\n

Trump said earlier this week <\/strong>that he was considering US involvement<\/a> and indicated he’d take two weeks to mull over decisions to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities. He appears to have determined that less time was necessary.<\/p>\n

Iran had threatened to retaliate against the US<\/a> and its forces in the Middle East if it got involved in the Israel-Iran conflict. The US armed forces have a substantial force presence<\/a> in the volatile region that the Department of Defense has said is intended to protect and defend American interests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US’s “massive precision strikes” on three Iranian nuclear facilities unleashed the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator bunker-buster bomb…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5358,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[6801,6802,6808,6803,6809,6805,6811,83,99,50,6806,6810,6807,2053,277,67,132,68,6804],"class_list":{"0":"post-5357","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"category-us","9":"tag-bunker-buster-bomb","10":"tag-combat","11":"tag-facility","12":"tag-first-time","13":"tag-fordow","14":"tag-gbu-57","15":"tag-international-studies","16":"tag-iran","17":"tag-israel","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-precision-guided-weapon","20":"tag-security-department","21":"tag-strike","22":"tag-tehran","23":"tag-trump","24":"tag-united-states","25":"tag-unitedstates","26":"tag-us","27":"tag-us-force"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114727387518473921","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}