‘Fordow is gone’: Why this secret nuclear plant in Iran was Trump’s top target

After dozens of mixed signals and threats, on Sunday (June 22), the United States joined Israel’s war on Iran when US President Donald Trump announced that the US military had carried out strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites and that Tehran “must now agree to end this war”.

Trump said the US military carried out a “very successful attack” on three Iranian nuclear sites , including the underground uranium enrichment facility at Fordow. “We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran,” including Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan, Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.

Catch all live updates from the Israel-Iran war here

“A full payload of bombs was dropped on the primary site,” Fordow, he said, adding that the planes were safely out of Iranian airspace and on the way home.

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Iran has confirmed the strikes on its nuclear plants with authorities saying that there was “no signs of contamination”. “No signs of contamination have been recorded,” said the National Centre for the Nuclear Safety System, which operates under Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation. “There is therefore no danger for the inhabitants living around the … sites.”

But what makes Fordow such a critical site? Why does the US and Israel seek to disable Fordow? And why was it that only the US could achieve this mission?

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What is Iran’s Fordow plant?

Located close to the holy city of Qom, the Fordow plant is a fortress built deep within the mountains — up to 300 feet underground. Its existence was first made public known in 2009. The location was originally part of a missile base controlled by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

In fact, when the finding of Fordow was made public, Iran earned a rare rebuke from Russia as well as a warning from China — both considered allies of Tehran.

According to Iranian documents stolen by Israeli intelligence, the main halls at Fordow are an estimated 80 to 90 metres (around 262 to 295 feet) beneath the ground — making it safe and almost unreachable to any weapon possessed by Israel.

Today, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Fordow houses 2,700 centrifuges and has been enriching uranium to 60 per cent — a technical step away from the 90 per cent needed for nuclear weapons.

According to the ISIS think tank, “Iran can convert its current stock of 60 per cent enriched uranium into 233 kg of weapon-grade uranium in three weeks at the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant,” enough for nine nuclear weapons.

Many analysts note that Fordow is Iran’s symbol of its nuclear ambitions. As Brett McGurk, who has served as Middle East coordinator for several American presidents, was quoted as telling New York Times, “If you don’t get Fordow, you haven’t eliminated their ability to produce weapons-grade material.”

What makes Fordow so impenetrable?

Hidden deep inside a mountain helps keep Fordow away from Israeli weapons. Believed to be between 80 and 300 feet underground, Fordow is well beyond the reach of conventional bombs and munitions.

“The Iranians fully understood that the Israelis would try to get inside their programmes and they built Fordow inside of a mountain a long time ago to take care of the post-Iraq problem” presented by the 1981 strike, Vali Nasr, an Iran expert who is a professor at Johns Hopkins University, told the New York Times.

Moreover, Fordow is protected by surface-to-air missiles, including Russia’s S-300 system, and has been reinforced to survive sustained bombardment.

“Tehran has made sure the facility can survive airstrike attacks, making Fordow a much harder target than the other facilities that have been hit through the years,” said Nicholas Carl, a research manager at the American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project, as per the NY Post.

In fact, a March report from the UK-based Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) think tank noted that destroying Fordow from the air would be almost impossible for Israel and would require significant firepower and assistance from the United States.

Why did the US and not Israel bombed Fordow?

Israeli officials have said that the destruction of Fordow is vital to stopping Iran’s nuclear ambitions. “The entire operation… really has to be completed with the elimination of Fordow,” Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter said.

But this is easier said than done. This is because Israel doesn’t have the weaponry to attack deep into the earth; only the US is in possession of such weaponry — the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator , which can only be dropped using a large aircraft, the B-2 stealth bombers, a US-made plane.

Also known as a bunker-busting bomb, the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator is 20 feet long and 30,000 pounds heavy. The warhead case is made from a special high performance steel alloy and its design allows for a large explosive payload while maintaining the integrity of the penetrator case during impact. It also possesses the ability to penetrate as deep as 61 metres into the ground.

But a report by Rusi notes that even the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator would not be enough. The report reads, “Even the GBU-57/B would likely require multiple impacts at the same aiming point to have a good chance of penetrating the facility.”

However, some analysts believe that there are other ways to destroy Fordow. CNN military analyst Cedric Leighton, a former US Air Force colonel, said, “Israel could probably destroy the tunnel entrances pretty far back, and certainly destroy the ventilation system,” he said. “If you destroyed (the tunnels) and the electric electrical supply, it would be months before they could really operate.”

It seems as of now the Fordow conundrum remains for Israel — the nuclear mountain will continue to haunt the Jewish nation.

With inputs from agencies