Washington: The United States has launched air strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, with President Donald Trump on Saturday said it was a “very successful attack” and confirmed that all US planes were safe on their way back.
Trump had spent weeks trying to revive a diplomatic agreement to replace the nuclear agreement with Tehran, which he retired in 2018. But he has now thrown his support behind Israeli’s military campaign against Iran’s Nuclear Infrastructure and top military leaders who began just over a week ago.
AFP is looking at what we know so far about the US strikes on Iran:
The goals
Trump declared that the United States hit three of Iran’s most important nuclear places: Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. He said Fordow was hit with a “full payload of bombs”.
Fordow – constructed in violation of the UN solutions – is built under a mountain near the holy city of Qom and was an important uranium enrichment site capable of housing approx. 3,000 centrifuges.
Centrifuges are used to enrich uranium for both civilian and military purposes of high -level enrichment needed to produce nuclear weapons.
Due to its deep underground location, Fordow had long presented a challenge for Israeli forces lacking bunker-busting ammunition needed to effectively beat the place.
Natanz is Iran’s primary uranium enrichment center, which houses almost 70 cascades of centrifuges across two larger plants. Isfahan hosts an uranium conversion facility and a nuclear fuel production system.
The ammunitions
Trump did not specify the exact weapons used in the strikes, but experts suggest that the GBU-57-a 30,000 pounds (13,600 kg) American bunker busting-by was probably deployed to destroy Fordow.
GBU-57, officially known as the massive ordnance penetrator, is designed to dig as deep as 200 feet (60 meters) under detonating, as opposed to conventional bombs exploding on or near influence.
Testing GBU-57 began in 2004, and Boeing was awarded a contract in 2009 to end his integration with appropriate aircraft.
The plane
The only aircraft capable of carrying and inserting the GBU-57 is the B-2 spirit, an American long-range stealth bomber that can transport two such weapons.
Before the strikes reported aircraft tracking platforms and US media for the movement of multiple B-2 bombers that gave up from a base in Missouri.
B-2, with a row of 6,000 miles (9,600 kilometers) without refueling, is designed to “penetrate the most advanced defense of an enemy and beat its most valuable and heavily fortified targets,” according to the US military.
B-2 was first publicly revealed in 1988 and flew for the first time in 1989. Its first operational delivery came in 1993. The aircraft has been used in military operations in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq.
What happens next?
Trump has called on Iran to “agree to end this war” and calls for “now to be time for peace.”
However, it is still unclear whether the strikes will cause Iran to resign or escalate the conflict further.
If Iran chooses to respond, it can do so by targeting American military staff across the Middle East or by trying to block the Hormuz Strait-a important shipping track through which one fifth of the world’s oil supply passes.
