White House defends success of Iran nuclear strikes ‘15 years’ in the making
The Pentagon has released jaw-dropping footage of the heavy duty bombs used against Iran’s nuke sites, as the FBI launched an investigation into a leaked top secret report.
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The Pentagon has released astonishing footage showing the damage capabilities of the 30,000 pound bunker buster bombs used on Iranian nuclear facilities, as the US administration defended the success of its Midnight Hammer operation.
The footage showcases the damage caused by a single GBU-57 series MOP (Massive Ordnance Penetrator).
It was released after the US air force dropped 14 of the heavy duty bombs on key Iranian nuclear sites.
“Unlike a normal surface bomb, you won’t see an impact crater because they’re designed to deeply bury and then function,” chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Lt. Gen. Dan Caine explained to reporters on Thursday.
General Caine told reporters that the strikes on Fordow went exactly as planned and were a “culmination” of 15 years of work.
He confirmed that agents at the Defence Threat Reduction Agency had been secretly studying the site since 2009 and “literally dreamed about this target at night when they slept”.
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth also touted the success of the mission, suggesting it had “decimated” Iran’s nuclear capabilities, swatting away claims that the damage inflicted would only set back the program by a few months.
Mr Hegseth attacked media outlets for “undermining the success of incredible pilots … who accomplished their mission” in reporting on what he called a “low confidence” assessment of the attack.
Meanwhile US President Donald Trump accused congressional Democrats of leaking a preliminary Pentagon report that found the US strikes only set Iran’s nuclear program back by a few months, saying they should be prosecuted.
The FBI has begun its investigation into the leak.
The initial report was dismissed by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt who said the leak came from a “low-level loser” and that the claims were a “clear attempt to demean President Trump”.
“Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000 pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration,” she wrote in a statement.
The director of the Central Intelligence Agency earlier this week revealed the agency had credible information that Iran’s nuclear program had been “severely damaged” by American strikes.
“CIA can confirm that a body of credible intelligence indicates Iran’s Nuclear Program has been severely damaged by the recent, targeted strikes,” the agency’s director John Ratcliffe said.
“This includes new intelligence from an historically reliable and accurate source/method that several key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed and would have to be rebuilt over the course of years.”
It follows comments from President Trump at this week’s NATO summit, where he indicated Israeli Mossad agents had been inspecting the damage at Fordow on the ground.
“It was hit brutally and it knocked it out … And it’s going to come out. Israel is doing a report on it now. I understand … You know, they have guys that go in there after the hit,” he said.
10 NUCLEAR WARHEADS
But experts warn a covert nuclear facility buried deep under a mountain south of Iran’s destroyed Natanz enrichment plant could house enough uranium for 10 nuclear warheads.
The underground nuclear site – thought to be buried more than 100m under the Kolang Gaz La mountain – would be comfortably beyond the range of US bunker busters used in Sunday’s strikes and has the floorspace for centrifuges required for weapons-grade uranium enrichment.
The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that it had lost track of 408.6gm of 60 per cent enriched uranium, while satellite images appear to show assets being moved outside the Fordow facility in the days leading up to the strikes.
Technical director of SMR Nuclear technology Tony Irwin said if 200 of the estimated 15,000 centrifuges at Natanz plant remained operational, the missing uranium could be enriched to 90 per cent in a matter of weeks – the equivalent of 10 warheads.
“The uranium would have come out of the centrifuge as a gas, uranium hexafluoride, it’s then put into a cylinder … They would have been able to get 400kg in just a few small cylinders,” he said.
“They’re transported worldwide all the time like this, so there’s absolutely no problem getting about four cylinders on the back of a truck and moving it to another location.”
The Australian nuclear engineer said the speed of Iran’s recovery hinged on whether crucial deconversion plants had been terminally damaged during the attacks.
“Certainly it could only take a few months if they have a deconversion plant … but if they’ve got to start constructing that and putting it together, I mean that’s going to take the rest of the year to do that at least,” he said.
The Institute for Science and International Security, which has been monitoring the construction process at Pickaxe Mountain, said it was difficult to discern whether the facility was operational.
“Given that Iran has deployed about 6000 advanced centrifuges at Fordow and the Natanz Fuel Enrichment Plant (FEP) over the last year, all produced outside of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) monitoring, Iran appears capable of secretly deploying a few thousand advanced centrifuges,” it said in its most recent update.
Deakin University Global Islamic Politics chair Professor Greg Barton said it was conceivable the missing uranium and a large array of centrifuges had been relocated prior to America’s strikes.
“The hope with the B-2 Fordow strike was that one single strike would cripple Iran’s nuclear weapons production and set it back years,” he said.
“It now looks like that was just wishful thinking and the operation hasn’t set them back that far.
“The hope that military action alone could deal with Iran’s nuclear weapons program was mistaken, it is pretty clear in hindsight that the best method of slowing down Iran’s progress was the JCPLA agreement.”
The IAEA, which has not inspected the Pickaxe Mountain site, lost track of a large number of centrifuge components when President Donald Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018.
The Iranian parliament launched preliminary steps to suspend co-operation with the UN’s nuclear watchdog, considering barring inspections and refusing to submit reports.
While the general outline of the bill has been approved, parliament has not yet fully signed off on the move.
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Originally published as White House defends success of Iran nuclear strikes ‘15 years’ in the making