The US military moved a number of deadly stealth bombers, which only they have in their arsenal, to a Air Force base in Guam prior to the attack on three Iranian nuclear sites.
On Saturday morning six of the B-2 stealth bombers docked at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri were on the move to Andersen Air Force Base.
The warplane is the only bomber capable of carrying a 30,000-pound bomb that was likely used in Saturday nights attack on three separate nuclear facilities in Iran.
President Donald Trump announced the US carried out a ‘very successful attack’ on the sites in a post on Truth Social.
‘We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan‘, Trump said .
‘All planes are now outside of Iran air space. A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow. All planes are safely on their way home.’
The bomb, known as the GBU-57 or the Massive Ordinance Penetrator, is something only the US military possesses.
The Fordo fuel enrichment plant is buried deep within a mountain system in Iran, but experts don’t know exactly how deep.
A B-2 Stealth Bomber flies over the Washington Monument at the National Mall, during the Independence Day celebrations in Washington DC, on July 4, 2020
Six B-2 stealth bombers, docked in Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, are on the move to a US military base in Guam, according to reports
These aircraft are capable of carrying a payload as heavy as the 30,000-pound bunker buster bomb (pictured) that the US military could use to destroy a fortified nuclear facility in Iran called Fordo
Experts who spoke to The New York Times believe the facility at its shallowest is 250 feet deep, but could be as much as 30 feet deeper.
Nonetheless, GBU-57 is the only way to assuredly wipe out the facility, short of using a nuclear device.
Jonathan Ruhe, the director of foreign policy for the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, said this type of bomb is designed to use the force of gravity to ‘penetrate through any mixture of earth, rock, and concrete before the bomb itself then explodes’ underground.
Ruhe told Fox News that the explosion could take out the facility fully or ‘collapse the structure’ around the target ‘without necessarily obliterating it.’
The precision-guided bomb is designed to attack deeply buried and hardened bunkers and tunnels, according to the U.S. Air Force.
It’s believed to be able to penetrate about 200 feet below the surface before exploding.
The bombs can be dropped one after another, effectively drilling deeper and deeper with each successive blast.
The B-2, which is capable of carrying nuclear arms, is only flown by the Air Force, and is produced by Northrop Grumman.
It first saw action in 1999 in the Kosovo War, and is rarely used by the U.S. military in combat as each aircraft is worth some $1 billion.
On Saturday morning six of the B-2 stealth bombers docked at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri were on the move to Andersen Air Force Base
Pictured: The aftermath of an Israeli strike on an oil refinery in Tehran, Iran’s capital city
Prior to the attack in Iran, the military last used them in October of last year to combat Yemen’s Houthi rebels and their underground bunkers. It has dropped bombs in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya as well.
The strategic long-range heavy bomber has a range of about 7,000 miles (11,000 kilometers) without refueling and 11,500 miles (18,500 kilometers) with one refueling, and can reach any point in the world within hours, according to Northrop Grumman.
America’s involvement in the Middle Eastern conflict comes as Israel and Iran have been launching tit-for-tat airstrikes against one another for the last week.
The war between the two countries began when Israel launched what it called Operation Rising Lion on Friday, June 13.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the operation against Iran would last ‘as many days as it takes.’
So far, Israel’s strikes have killed 657 people in Iran, while Iran has killed 24 people in Israel.
Israel’s objective, to stop Iran from compiling enough fissile material to make a nuke, cannot be completed until the Fordow facility is destroyed.
Pictured: A satellite view of the Fordow nuclear facility, which is in the northwest of Iran
There are possible complications that could arise if the US strikes Fordo, located 60 miles southwest of Tehran, with the bunker-buster bomb (pictured)
For days, Trump has been coy about whether the US will in fact enter the war and fly a mission to Fordo.
On Wednesday, he told reporters who were asking him about it: ‘You don’t seriously think I’m going to answer that question. Will you strike the Iranian nuclear component?’
‘I may do it, I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do. I can tell you this, that Iran’s got a lot of trouble. And they want to negotiate. And I say why didn’t you negotiate with me before all this death and destruction,’ he said.
Trump warned that Tehran has a ‘maximum’ of two weeks to avoid possible American air strikes if they don’t abandon their nuclear ambitions. At a conference on Thursday, Karoline Leavitt said Trump would be making a decision in the next 14 days.
Trump recently publicly disagreed with Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who testified in March that there is ‘no evidence’ Iran is building a nuclear weapon.
‘She’s wrong,’ Trump said Friday in New Jersey just off to the side of Air Force One. ‘My intelligence community is wrong.’
Gabbard has since reversed course and clarified that Iran could produce nukes ‘within weeks to months, if they decide to finalize the assembly.’
‘President Trump has been clear that can’t happen, and I agree,’ she added.
Back in March 2023, the International Atomic Energy Agency said that some uranium at the Fordo site had been enriched to 83.7 percent purity – dangerously close to the 90 percent level necessary for nuclear bombs.
Fordo is smaller than the Natanz site, which has already been targeted by Israeli strikes.
As well as being some 260 feet under rock and soil, the site is reportedly protected by Iranian and Russian surface-to-air missile systems.
Those air defenses, however, are believed to have been weakened by recent Israeli attacks.
Additionally, any US strike carries significant political and diplomatic risks for Trump, who has long warned against entangling the US in overseas conflicts.
For example, Russia has warned that US involvement could ‘radically destabilize the Middle East.’
Military engagement could also jeopardize any chance of Trump’s desired talks with Iran over its nuclear program.
