Israeli airstrikes may have caused some damage to Iran's nuclear programme but experts say much more powerful bombs are needed to destroy fortified underground sites.
Israel said it had struck Natanz on Friday and “damaged” the underground area of the site, a multistorey enrichment area with centrifuges, electrical rooms and other infrastructure. Israel did not elaborate on whether it targeted Fordow.
Both nuclear facilities were created with such strikes in mind. The Fordow facility for fuel enrichment is buried under a mountain, and both it and Natanz are under dozens of metres of reinforced concrete. Destroying such a structure would require successive hits with bunker-buster bombs.
While the U.S. has B-2 stealth bombers with 30,000lb massive ordnance penetrators that are designed just for this type of strike, Israel’s options are more limited – if it is operating by itself, the FT said.
