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20th June 2025
10:08am BST
60 miles from Tehran lies an Iranian nuclear plant deep in the mountains that Israel could only dream of reaching with their weaponry.
Known as the Fordo facility, this uranium enrichment site is perceived by the Israelis as a threat to their existence, although Iran insists it's merely for civilian use.
Cutting even further into the earth than the Channel Tunnel that connects Britain and France, Fordo has an air of invincibility about it, yet the 13,000kg GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) belonging to the US is capable of potentially wiping it out - should they feel the need to.
The Fordo complex used to be a tunnel system used by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, yet the Iranians were forced to acknowledge its ulterior motives back in 2009 when Western intelligence agencies rumbled them (via BBC). It's thought that two main tunnels house uranium-enriching centrifuges beside a network of smaller tunnels.
There is an introductory checkpoint before you get to six entrance tunnels, while ring-fencing and a large support building with a road are apparent above ground.
As for the monstrous, Fordo-threatening MOP, its heaviness allows it to penetrate 61m of earth prior to explosion.
Total destruction is nowhere near guaranteed though, because the subterranean site could well reach 90m, unlike Iran's other nuclear site at Natanz, which was "severely damaged" just recently by Israel.
Ex-head of the Irish Defence Forces, vice-admiral Mark Mellett, told BBC Verify that the chances of America's "bunker busters" destroying a site like Fordo depends on how heavily reinforced the underground tunnels are.
"[Iran] would know the specification of this type of ordnance. They'd know what they need to try and withstand from this ordnance. So the question is, are [the Fordo facilities] beyond the reach of that ordnance?" he noted.
As for whether US President Donald Trump is thinking of joining the Israeli strikes on Iran, he informed reporters this week that his patience "had already run out" with Tehran.
"I may do it, I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I'm going to do," he teased.
