Reuters WITH its nuclear program beset as never before by sanctions, sabotage and assassination, Iran must now make a new addition to its list of concerns: One of the biggest conventional bombs ever built. Boeing's 30,000-pound Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP), an ultra-large bunker buster for use on underground targets, with Iran routinely mentioned as its most likely intended destination, is a key element in the implicit US threat to use force as a last resport against Iran's nuclear ambitions. The behemoth, carrying more than 5,300 pounds of explosive, was delivered with minimal fanfare to Whiteman US Air Force Base, Missouri in September. It is designed for delivery by B-2 Stealth bombers. Would that weapon, delivered in a gouging combination with other precision-guided munitions, pulverize enough rock to reach down and destroy the uranium enrichment chamber sunk deep in a mountain at Fordow, Iran's best sheltered nuclear site? While the chances of such a strike succeeding are slim, they are not so slim as to enable Tehran to rule out the possibility of one being attempted, according to defense experts contacted by Reuters. A “second best” result might be merely to block the plant's surface entrances, securing its temporary closure, some said. One US official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, described an attack on the underground site, about 160 km (100 miles) south of Tehran near the Iranian city of Qom, as “hard but not impossible.” The United States is the only country with any chance of damaging the Fordow chamber using just conventional air power, most experts say. The vulnerability of the chamber at Fordow, believed buried up to 80 meters (260 feet) deep on a former missile base controlled by the elite Revolutionary Guards Corps, came into sharper focus on Monday when the United Nations nuclear watchdog confirmed that Iran had started enriching uranium at the site. The same day a State Department spokeswoman declared that if Iran was enriching uranium to 20 percent at Fordow this would be a “further escalation” of its pattern of violating its obligations under UN Security Council resolutions. Western powers suspect the program is aimed at developing the capacity to build a nuclear weapon. Iran says it is strictly for civilian uses. Critics of Iran's nuclear program tend to agree that military action against Iran's nuclear work would be their last and worst option. Not only would this risk civilian casualties, but Iran would seek to retaliate against Western targets in the region, raising the risk of a regional war and risking global economic turmoil.Once it had recovered it would probably decide unequivocally to pursue a nuclear bomb. Critics of the military option further point out that non-military pressure is increasing. __
