GBU-57: The 30,000 Pound ‘Bunker-Buster Bomb’ That Could Strike Iran

Key Points – While Israel’s recent air strikes have damaged Iranian nuclear sites like Natanz, its deeply buried Fordow enrichment facility remains a significant challenge that may require a unique US weapon to destroy. The 30,000-pound GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP), or “bunker buster,” is designed for such targets but can only be delivered by a US Air Force B-2 stealth bomber.

-This presents a dilemma for the Trump administration: using the weapon would mean direct US involvement in the war, contradicting a key campaign promise, while providing it to Israel is likely not an option, leaving Iran’s most protected nuclear site potentially intact.

GBU-57: Time to Break Out the Bunker-Buster to Hit Iran?

After years of talking about it, Israel last week began bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities, intending to knock Iran’s nuclear capabilities offline.

After several days of bombardment, per the Associated Press, Israel has struck several key sites, with the International Atomic Energy Agency stating that  Iran’s Natanz enrichment site has likely sustained damage.

“Based on continued analysis of high-resolution satellite imagery collected after Friday’s attacks, the IAEA has identified additional elements that indicate direct impacts on the underground enrichment halls at Natanz,” the IAEA said in a statement this week.

The United States has not officially joined the strikes, although President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.

This has led to a major backlash from some segments of the MAGA base, including Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon.

Going After Fordo 

There’s one dynamic in the alleged Iran nuclear program that has long been present: Iran is believed to operate a nuclear facility called Fordo, which is located within a mountain, near Qom. Therefore, that facility is very difficult to reach for an attack.

Per the Associated Press, striking the Fordo facility may very well require the usage of a certain weapon that the United States has, and Israel does not.

That weapon is the GBU-57 A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator bomb, a type of “bunker-buster” which can only be carried by the B-2 stealth bomber.

The AP described the GBU-57 as a “roughly 30,000 pound (13,600 kilogram) precision-guided bomb… designed to attack deeply buried and hardened bunkers and tunnels.”

That could crush or at least set back Iran’s nuclear program.

The problem is that going that route would almost certainly involve direct U.S. involvement in the war, in a way that would have major political costs, while also committing the United States to a military entanglement that it might rather avoid.

“Such a bomb would have to be dropped from an American aircraft,” the AP story said. Such a course of action would result in “wide-ranging ramifications, including jeopardizing any chance of Iran engaging in Trump’s desired talks on its nuclear program. Israeli officials have also suggested that there are other options for it to attack Fordo as it seeks to destroy Iran’s nuclear capabilities.”

GBU-57 Attack: A Long Time Coming? 

The idea of the U.S. participating in an attack on Iran’s facilities, and using a version of that specific weapon, has been discussed for a very long time.

ABC News, back in October of 2009, published a story titled “Is the U.S. Preparing to Bomb Iran?,” based on a funding request, two years earlier, “to develop a gargantuan bunker-busting bomb called the Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP),” with an “urgent operational need” cited for the weapon.

In 2009, ABC reported that the Pentagon “planned to spend $19.1 million to procure four of the bombs, $28.3 million to accelerate the bomb’s ‘development and testing,’ and $21 million to accelerate the integration of the bomb onto B-2 stealth bombers.”

In 2015, Time Magazine looked at “How the U.S. Would Destroy Iran’s Nuclear Program,” even at a time when the U.S. and other Western countries were negotiating what would become the JCPOA. That piece discussed the GBU-57 and how a successful weapon drop from a B-2 had been completed.

The Top Gun Precedent

The plot of the 2022 film Top Gun: Maverick involved a daring Naval mission to attack a uranium enrichment plant located in an underground bunker, in an enemy nation that was seeking to build nuclear weapons. In that case, the facility was located not inside a mountain but rather in a bunker in a hard-to-reach canyon. But it was a hard-to-reach place that couldn’t be easily attacked by enemy fighter jets.

The film, much like the first Top Gun, was deliberately vague about which foreign countries were involved, as well as most other geopolitical questions. But one analysis of the film stated that Iran had the most in common with the target of the mission in the movie.

And of course, the planes used in the Top Gun: Maverick plot were F/A-18 Super Hornets that could move in light and fast with much smaller weapons. The B-2 and its GBU-57 massive bomb are a totally different animal.

About the Author: Stephen Silver

Stephen Silver is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, and contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. For over a decade, Stephen has authored thousands of articles that focus on politics, technology, and the economy. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @StephenSilver, and subscribe to his Substack newsletter.

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