30,000 Pound Bomb

Bombs Away!

For all of the debate and politicking surrounding the Iran nuclear deal, there does seem to be consensus on one question — the absence of a deal increases the likelihood of military conflict with Iran. Walking away from a deal negotiated in good faith with America’s allies would, by many accounts, make it difficult to find a peaceful, diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear problem.

But there’s a much bigger weapon in the American arsenal that could be used to stop Iran’s development of a nuclear weapon. It’s a 30,000-pound bomb. Such a weapon would be necessary to penetrate Iran’s enrichment facility at Fordo.This nuclear enrichment facility was a closely kept secret by the Iranians until satellite imagery shed light on it in 2009. This facility is built deep inside a mountain in order to make it impenetrable to airstrikes, as the Iranians presumably knew any nuclear weapons program would be targeted militarily by the international community.

But Fordo is not completely impenetrable. There is one nation that possesses one weapon with the capacity to crack the mountain facility.

That nation is the United States of America. That weapon is the massive ordnance penetrator. At 30,000 pounds, it is six times the size of the largest bunker-busting bombs that existed prior to its development. It’s more than 20 feet long, nearly 3 feet wide, and delivers a 5,000-pound warhead.

The massive ordnance penetrator is so large it can only be dropped by the United States’ massive strategic long-range bombers, the B-52 Stratofortress, and the B-2 Spirit. Even if the United States didn’t have the only military with the massive ordnance penetrator, it is the only country that could use it.

The weapon is capable of penetrating several dozen feet of concrete before detonating deep underground with a, well, massive explosion.