The US attacks Isfahan, home of the Iranian nuclear program, and blows up an underground arsenal with ‘bunker-buster’ bombs

The United States has reached an underground arsenal in the Isfahan province, headquarters of the Iranian nuclear program. The attack has been confirmed by a source in the US Armed Forces at Wall Street Journalspecifying that the target reached was an ammunition depot.

The president of the United States, Donald Trump, released a video hours before showing a massive chain explosion without mentioning location or date. The same military sources certify that the images correspond to the attack in Isfahan.

Trump posted the 32-second video andn his official Truth Social account. In it you can see the detonations in the middle of the night. The Isfahan area, one of the most populated and industrialized areas in Iran, has been the target of Israeli and American bombing in recent weeks.

The command consulted by the WSJ affirms that the attack was carried out with “a large number” of high penetration bombs, known as ‘bunker busters’2,000 pounds and can be launched from fighter-bombers.

Tehran, the Iranian capital, has also suffered bombings overnight. According to the Iranian government, explosions in the east and west of the capital have caused several power outageswith no victims reported

Bunker-buster bombs

These bombs represent an intermediate capacity between conventional 2,000-pound munitions and the 30,000-pound GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator. The GBU-72 can be launched from platforms such as the B-1B bomber and F-15E fighter-bomber, and could have been used in May 2024 in joint US-British strikes against underground Houthi facilities in Yemen.

Each munition, costing approximately $288,000, offers considerable penetration capability with a smaller logistical and operational footprint. The GBU-72 is the modern evolution of early bunker-buster bombs such as the GBU-28, developed using advanced modeling and simulation techniques.

Its design allows you pass through reinforced concrete or deeply buried bunkers before detonatingmaximizing the destruction of strategic targets while reducing collateral damage on the surface.

In October 2021, an F‑15E Strike Eagle launched it for the first time from 35,000 feet over Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, in a series of tests that included first flights, loads and launches.

The hunt for uranium

The president of the United States has also considered ordering a military operation to extract almost 1,000 pounds (about 450 kilos) of uranium enriched material that Iran stores, as confirmed by the WSJ.

Tehran confirms that it has about 440 kilos of nuclear material enriched to 60%a level of purity that is considered close to the 90% necessary for the manufacture of nuclear weapons. Iran claims not to be pursuing that objective, but the United States and Israel are suspicious.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) denounces that since 2019 it has been denied access to Iran’s facilities, although it believes that uranium reserves may still be in two of the three sites that the United States and Israel attacked last June: a tunnel complex in Isfahan and a warehouse in Natanz.

To access those locations and extract the uranium, US special forces would first have to fly to those points, probably under fire from Iranian surface-to-air missiles and drones. Once there, “combat troops would have to secure the perimeter so that engineers, equipped with excavation machinery, could trace debris and check for mines or booby traps“.

The experts consulted by the WSJ They believe the enriched uranium will probably be stored in about 40 to 50 scuba tank-like cylinders, which would need to be placed in shipping containers and filled into several trucks. The operation could take a week to complete, and would possibly require the provision of a makeshift airfield

Taking nuclear material out of the country will be an extremely risky process. “This is not a quick, in-and-out operation.“Retired General Joseph Votel, former commander of US Central Command and US Special Operations Command, told the newspaper.