It would likely take more than one of the United States' massive "bunker-buster" bombs to take out Iran's Fordo nuclear facility, retired U.S. Army Maj. John Spencer, the author of "Understanding Urban Warfare," told Newsmax Saturday, after the U.S. military said it is moving B-2 bombers to Guam that are capable of carrying the bombs.
The B-2 can be equipped to carry and designed to destroy targets deep underground.
"The bunker buster is just for any suite of munitions that's designed to penetrate the ground first before exploding, not on the surface," Spencer told Newsmax's "Saturday Agenda." "The ones that most people are talking about that Israel doesn't have are these massive ordnance penetrators, which are specifically designed to go deeper than some of the other bunker busters."
The Fordo Fuel Enrichment Plant is believed to be at least 300, if not 400, feet underground, inside a mountain. The United States' 30,000-pound GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator, said Spencer, can reach 200 feet underground, meaning it would take "two of these, because there is a tactic of dropping one bunker buster and then following it with another as the first one clears the way."
He noted that President Donald Trump said this week that he is giving Iran two weeks while he comes to a decision, and given that he gave Iran 60 days to negotiate before Israel attacked, the bombs could be sent.
"These are one of the few capabilities that could take out that Fordo nuclear site, which is one of the biggest, with a minimal amount of risk," Spencer said.
He added that there are other ways to take out the site, but they could involve extreme risks to Israel.
It would be a serious measure for the United States to deploy the bunker busters, said Spencer, but it would also continue the mission of preserving peace through strength.
"The president has been very clear that the ayatollah has had a decision from the beginning that he can either destroy and dismantle his program or it can be done for him by force," said Spencer.
"Israel is doing a pretty good job of destroying that nuclear program. They've killed 14 of the 15 nuclear scientists.
"They've hit almost all the sites that they possibly can with their advanced munitions. What it will take — I think the president is, is waiting till all options have been expended, just like he had before," he said.
Still, Spencer said, there is "ultimately a diplomatic solution here."
"There's always got to be a diplomatic solution, because this is about changing the regime in Iran's behavior, not just what it has now and how close it was to breaking out a bomb," he added. "This is about convincing them that it needs to give that program up."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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