What Satellite Images Reveal About the US Bombing of Iran’s Nuclear Sites

When the USA bombed Iran within the early hours of Sunday native time, it focused three amenities central to the nation’s nuclear ambitions: the Fordow uranium enrichment plant, the Natanz nuclear facility, and the Isfahan nuclear know-how middle. Newly launched satellite tv for pc pictures present the influence of the assault—no less than, what could be seen on the bottom.The brunt of the bombing targeted on Fordow, the place US forces dropped a dozen GBU-57 Huge Ordnance Penetrators as a part of its “Midnight Hammer” operation. These 30,000-pound “bunker-buster” bombs are designed to penetrate as deep as 200 toes into the earth earlier than detonating. The Fordow complicated is roughly 260 toes underground.That hole accounts for among the uncertainty over precisely how a lot harm the Fordow website sustained. President Donald Trump shared a submit on his Fact Social platform following the assault that declared “Fordow is gone,” and later stated in a televised tackle that “Iran’s key nuclear enrichment amenities have been fully and completely obliterated.” His personal army, nonetheless, was barely extra circumspect concerning the consequence in a Sunday morning briefing. “It might be method too early for me to touch upon what could or could not nonetheless be there,” stated basic Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Workers.Satellite tv for pc imagery can inherently solely let you know a lot a couple of construction that’s located thus far under the floor of the earth. However earlier than and after imagery is the most effective publicly obtainable details about the bombing’s influence.A satellite tv for pc picture from earlier than the US bombing of Fordow.
Photograph: MAXAR Applied sciences/Handout through ReutersA satellite tv for pc picture from after the US bombing of Fordow.
Photograph: MAXAR Applied sciences/Handout through Reuters“What we see are six craters, two clusters of three, the place there have been 12 huge ordnance penetrators dropped,” says Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program on the Middlebury Institute’s James Martin Middle for Nonproliferation Research. “The thought is you hit the identical spot over and over to form of dig down.”The particular places of these craters matter as properly, says Joseph Rodgers, deputy director and fellow on the Middle for Strategic and Worldwide Research’ Undertaking on Nuclear Points. Whereas the doorway tunnels to the Fordow complicated seem to not have been focused, US bombs fell on what are doubtless air flow shafts, primarily based on satellite tv for pc pictures of early building on the website.“The rationale that you simply’d wish to goal a air flow shaft is that it’s a extra direct path to the core parts of the underground facility,” says Rodgers.That direct route is very necessary given how deep underground Fordow was constructed. The US army depends on “principally a pc mannequin” of the power, says Lewis, which tells them “how a lot strain it might take earlier than it might severely harm all the pieces inside and possibly even collapse the power.” By bombarding particular focused areas with a number of munitions, the US didn’t want bombs able to penetrating the total 260 toes to trigger substantial harm.“They’re in all probability not attempting to get all the best way into the power. They’re in all probability simply attempting to get shut sufficient to it and crush it with a shockwave,” Lewis says. “In case you ship a sufficiently big shockwave by way of that facility, it’s going to kill individuals, break stuff, harm the integrity of it.”