The nuclear plant is housed under a mountain and likely could only be destroyed in an airstrike by using American bombs made for that purpose.
President Donald Trump is considering using military force to support Israel’s current campaign to destroy Iran’s nuclear enrichment capabilities.
Though Trump has expressed a desire to keep American forces out of the expanding conflict in the Middle East, Israel lacks the military capabilities required to directly destroy some of Iran’s nuclear facilities due to their location deep underground.
To successfully destroy Iran’s Fordo nuclear enrichment plant, which is housed beneath a mountain, Israel requires so-called “bunker-buster” bombs, which are designed to penetrate soil and concrete structures before striking their target.
The only ordnance likely capable of reaching the facilities at Fordo, however, are American-made precision weapons owned exclusively by the U.S. military.
That means that Israel will require U.S. support to complete its stated goal of destroying Iran’s nuclear facilities in toto without deploying troops on the ground at Fordo.
Iran’s Nuclear Fortress
Fordo is Iran’s second-largest nuclear facility and is located about 60 miles southwest of the capital of Tehran.
The facility hosts advanced uranium centrifuge cascades, which are essential for producing nuclear fuel. Many analysts have also long suspected that Fordo is where the Iranian regime would conceal any clandestine attempts to develop nuclear warheads.
Constructed between 2007 and 2009, the Fordo facility is built into the side of a mountain and is roughly 260 feet underground, as well as reinforced with barriers.
The facility also appears designed to withstand direct airstrikes and is protected by anti-aircraft batteries, though these have come under fire from Israeli forces in the last week.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the goal of attacking Iran was to eliminate its missile and nuclear programs, which he described as an existential threat to Israel, and officials have said the destruction of Fordo was part of that plan.
“This entire operation … really has to be completed with the elimination of Fordo,” Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, said during a Fox News interview on Friday.
