As Israel intensifies its campaign to neutralize Iran’s nuclear capabilities, one critical target remains untouched: the Fordow nuclear facility — Iran’s most fortified and deeply buried installation. Located approximately two hours south of Tehran and buried beneath a mountain, Fordow presents a unique and formidable military challenge.
According to Jonathan Ruhe, Director of Foreign Policy at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA), conventional airstrikes are unlikely to succeed in eliminating Fordow.
Speaking with Fox News Digital, Ruhe explained that the only munition capable of effectively destroying the site is the U.S.-developed GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) — a 30,000-pound bunker buster explicitly engineered to penetrate hardened underground targets like Fordow.
While Israel possesses its own bunker-buster arsenal, including 2,000- and 5,000-pound variants, these are insufficient to reach a facility possibly buried as deep as 295 to 800 meters underground, according to varying reports from intelligence analysts and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The MOP, with a penetration capability of up to 200 feet, would likely need to be deployed in succession, in a process known as “burrowing,” where multiple bombs are dropped in rapid sequence to deepen the penetration with each strike.
Ruhe emphasized that this kind of precision operation would require deployment by a B-2 Spirit stealth bomber — a platform only available to the United States. While Israel has air superiority over Iran and could field F-15s and F-35s in a coordinated strike, the lack of access to the MOP — and the absence of B-2 bombers — limits their options. Any talk of the U.S. loaning such strategic assets to Israel was dismissed by Ruhe as unrealistic, calling it a “dangerous distraction.”
Despite these limitations, Ruhe noted that Israel has a proven track record of tactical innovation and could potentially degrade the Fordow facility using its existing arsenal. While full destruction may be out of reach, Israeli strikes could disrupt power supplies, collapse tunnel exits, or render the air too contaminated for centrifuges to function — all of which could delay Iran’s nuclear progress by months or even years.
Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, reinforced the gravity of the situation. “Destroying [Fordow] from the air is a job only the U.S. can do,” he said. However, Israel’s broader strategy has already seen success: previous sabotage efforts at Natanz and Isfahan have targeted key parts of Iran’s fuel cycle.
Ruhe concluded that Israel and the U.S. may differ in their definitions of success. “Americans tend to think of obliterating targets,” he said, whereas Israel may see operational disruption — even temporary — as a sufficient and strategically valuable outcome.
