Air Force's Bunker-Buster Bomb Could Take Out Iran Nuclear Facility, But Israel Hints at Other Options
Military.com | By Richard Sisk
Published June 16, 2025 at 6:12pm ET
The entire Israeli campaign to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons will be considered a failure if the spinning centrifuges deep underground at the Fordow enrichment facility south of Tehran are left untouched, the former head of U.S. Central Command said Monday.
"I take it at face value when the Israelis say if Fordow is untouched when they're finished, they would regard it as a failure" of Operation Rising Lion, which began last Friday with wide-ranging airstrikes against Iran's air defenses, military facilities and key leaders, retired Marine Gen. Kenneth "Frank" McKenzie said in a Middle East Institute panel discussion.
Former CIA and National Security Council official Ken Pollack, the panel's moderator, said he had been told by Israeli officials that, "If this ends with Fordow still functioning, we have not achieved our objectives."
Even as Fordow remains a high priority for the Israelis, the facility has been relatively untouched thus far, McKenzie said. "I'm certain they're gonna get round to Fordow," he said, but how the Israelis could attack and destroy a facility believed to be protected by reinforced concrete a half-mile underground was unclear.
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2025/06/16/air-forces-bunker-buster-bomb-could-take-out-iran-nuclear-facility-israel-hints-other-options.html
