Fordow’s Final Hours? Inside America’s Bunker-Busting Battle Plan

The Birth of the Beast

They flickered the first ember of this monster in the early 2000s. An earlier attempt—30,000 pounds of precision steel and high explosives—foundered in technical delays. But after the early Afghanistan campaign exposed the weaknesses of American bunker busters when the GBU‑28 and GBU‑37 literally bounced off hardened targets, something snapped in the Pentagon’s mind. We needed more power. Enter the Massive Ordnance Penetrator: officially called the GBU‑57, it is 13.6 tons of fury, measuring over 20 feet long, designed to punch through 200 feet of stone and concrete before erupting in a heart‑stopping, eardrum-bursting explosion. 

Born from a partnership between the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Air Force Research Laboratory, and Boeing, flight‑tests at White Sands from 2008 to 2010 validated the gizmo; four more drops in 2017 sealed its brutal promise  The B‑2 Spirit stealth bomber underwent a $200 million refit so it could lug these titans—two per bird if needed.

And being a soldier at heart and full of dark humor, I love the wordplay the name “MOP” lends itself to.

Let’s see: Mountain Obliteration Package, Ministry of Pulverization, Meatgrinder of Peace, and last but not least, Mullah Obliteration Plan. If you think of any others, share them in the comments.

How It Works – Physics, Fury, and Precision

This isn’t merely a bomb, it’s a geological sledgehammer with GPS (just like your cell phone) and INS (Inertial Navigation System) guidance. A quartet of trapezoidal wings and lattice fins stabilizes the descent. Its smart fuze (thanks to ETR‑IV modernizations) counts layers of rock and void and detonates precisely at the targeted depth. Unlike MOAB‘s deflagration, the MOP digs deep, compresses mountain rock, and then explodes in situ—obliterating subterranean bunkers that mere megatons of nuclear yield would flinch to touch.

The latest iteration, the GBU-57E/B (with “smart fuze”), debuted quietly circa 2016, and fresh updates keep the stockpile sharper than ever. Boeing and USAF continue improving their bunker‑busting vocabulary in the lexicon of kinetic warfare.

Fordow: Mt. Doom Beckons

Here lies the rub: Fordow, Iran’s uranium enrichment site, is carved into Qom’s mountainside—300 ft under reinforced concrete and solid rock, guarded by Russian S‑300s . Israel’s GBU‑28s barely scratch its surface; Fordow remained untouched by Israeli airstrikes on June 13 despite damage at Natanz

Enter Uncle Sam. Only the U.S. has the MOP and B‑2 combo hefty enough to nuke the bunker without nukes. But experts warn: Fordow plunges 80 m deep—possibly beyond MOP’s maximum penetration of ~60 m. Dual, or sacrificial, MOP drops might be needed—yet no one knows if that would fracture the target.

Birds of Prey

Make no mistake, the B‑2 Spirit is the only certifiable MOP mule today. Some chatter hinted at B‑1s, B‑52s, even F‑15EX, but USAF denies any F‑15EX plans and keeps it exclusive . The B‑21 Raider looms in the future, expected to carry one MOP when it joins the fleet .

Logistics? Picture a B‑2, ghosting from Whiteman AFB, refueled mid‑air by a KC‑135 or KC‑10, slipping past Iranian SAMs under electronic cloak, then barrelling to Fordow’s coordinates. One or two MOPs free‑fall—guided by stealth, laced with GPS, timed by smart fuze. Boom and pray.

Politics and Peril

This is more than military geometry. Trump has reportedly issued an ultimatum to Tehran—”our patience is wearing thin”—while strategically bombing up carriers, F‑22s, F‑35s, and tankers into the Middle East. Update: I just saw Trump being interviewed live on Fox News five minutes ago, and they asked him about his patience with Iran. He said categorically, “It’s gone.” No room for misinterpretation there. 

Using the MOP is crossing a line: it drags the U.S. into kinetic escalation, risking fallout—figurative and radioactive—over Qom’s holy sanctum, stirring sectarian rage. Our friends over at Financial Times remind us: “MOP has not been used in combat” and could fall short of a clean kill. A failure could signal weakness – and invite retaliation. Still, we have to give it a try. Alternatives are just too risky. 

If diplomacy fails and Fordow keeps spinning centrifuges toward weapon‑grade enrichment, we may well see that B‑2 overhead, a 30‑ton demon in its belly—and the skies darken over Iran.

No one wants that to have to happen.

The End Game

Ladies and gents, what we are looking at here is an explosive payload of approximately 5,300 pounds of high-performance explosives, primarily AFX-757 and PBXN-114. That’s roughly equivalent to about 2.67 tons of TNT. I have no foreknowledge of this, but I’m guessing we’ll have to put two of those bad boys on target just to make sure we don’t have to come back and do it again.

This is the calculus of our age – Fordow sits in silence, its centrifuges humming (for now). 

Soon, B-2 bombers will go wheels up from Diego Garcia, carrying American instruments of geological exorcism.

If US resolve holds, before long we’ll see our pilots putting Iran’s nuclear aspirations out of business—without a single mushroom cloud.

And that’s a win for humanity.