It is hard to find less accessible places on this planet built by a man. They are hidden tens of meters below the ground and surrounded by so many concrete and rocky massifs that perhaps only one army in the world can hit them. If someone can do it at all, they are definitely the United States.
Thus military experts describe three main goals of contemporary American attacks in Iran – Fordo, Nataz of Ishafán.
Especially the first of them, Ford, is an almost impenetrable strength hidden deep in the ground. So deeply that if you excavated a hole in the ground reaching to it, a 12-story block of flats would fit into it.
The Americans that is why long ago began to develop a bomb labeled GBU-57, which is the only one capable of drilling to the Iranian Ford, where Iran is likely to be deep underground enriches Uranus.
But even the American military specialists themselves cannot be quite sure that they will succeed in practice. In addition, Ford bombing is associated with huge risks.
We know we don’t know and we don’t know we don’t know
The US army concluded that one bomb would not destroy Ford itself. To destroy the building, the attack would have to come in the waves, while the bombers would be discharged one by one into the same hole.
There is not much to know about the facility, Heather Williams, director of the nuclear issue project in the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “There could be some other tunnels or devices that are buried even deeper into the mountain,” she said.
When the US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld explained in 2002 to his Pentagon colleagues why the war in Iraq was so unpredictable, he used the winged expression today
“There are things we know we know. We also know that there are things we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknown – things we don’t know we don’t know.”
The same is true of the Iranian nuclear facilities that the US has attacked today.
“The Destroyer of Bunkers”
The uranium enrichment facility in Ford, located approximately a hundred kilometers south of Tehran, is laid in a mountainous area near Kom.
The Ford complex was originally a series of tunnels used by elite Islamic revolutionary guardians, but Iran acknowledged the existence of an uranium enrichment plant in 2009 after it was discovered by Western news services.
To cause significant damage to the site, it would be necessary to use an ammunition known as the “bunker destroyer” that is able to penetrate the deep under the earth’s surface.
It is believed that Israel has such weapons, but can only act to a depth of less than ten meters. On the other hand, the US has a stronger bomb-the 13-ton GBU-57.
Estimates of how deep they can get underground vary-experts think that before the explosion can penetrate 18-meter concrete or 60-meter earthy rock.
Only one American bomber is powerful enough to carry and drop it-namely the B-2 bomber. Although Israel has combat fighters, it has not developed heavy bombers capable of carrying this explosive.
In recent years, Ford has become the main Iranian uranium enrichment facility. “They have the most effective centrifugs,” vice president of the nuclear threat initiative, a non -profit organization aimed at limiting the spread of nuclear weapons. “And they can be organized differently to speed up the process.”
Is there an ecological disaster? Not before
Nuclear experts warned against any attack on nuclear equipment, but the risk of spreading radiation in the attack on Ford seems to be limited.
The gaseous hexafluoride of the uranium, which is supplied to the centrifug, is toxic but is heavier than air. Given that Ford is underground, any gas that would escape as a result of bombing, it would mostly be detained within the race, even if it was directly affected.
The other two goals in Iran have previously hit the Israeli Air Force instead of Americans.
The second is Natanz, where the largest Iranian uranium enrichment center is located and the Israeli army has damaged it in several attacks.
The third is a facility in the well -known tourist ancient town of Isfahan. It is believed that nuclear fuel is stored there in a complex near this pilgrimage site.
If this place is destroyed by Israel with the Americans, it could delay the Iranian nuclear program a few years – provided that Iran does not have other uranium enrichment devices that the West does not know about. However, this is unlikely, given the attention of the American secret services of Iran.
