Washington: United States has launched air attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities, and President Donald Trump said Saturday that it was a “very successful attack” and confirming that all US planes were safely on their way back.
Trump had spent weeks trying to revive a diplomatic agreement to replace the nuclear agreement with Tehran, which he withdrew in 2018. But now he has presented his support behind Israel’s military campaign against Iran’s nuclear infrastructure and the main military leaders, which began just over a week ago.
AFP looks what we know so far about the strikes of the United States in Iran:
The objectives
Trump declared that the United States attacked three of Iran’s main nuclear sites: Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. He said ForDow was beaten with a “complete payload of bombs.”
ForDow, built in violation of UN resolutions, is built under a mountain near the sacred city of Qom and was a key uranium enrichment site capable of accommodating approximately 3,000 centrifugable.
Centrifugators are used to enrich uranium for civil and military purposes, with the high -level enrichment necessary to produce nuclear weapons.
Due to its deep underground location, Fordow had long raised a challenge for Israeli forces, which lack the ammunition that destroy the necessary bunker to effectively attack the site.
Natanz is the main enrichment center of Uranium in Iran, which houses almost 70 centrifuging waterfalls on two main floors. ISFAHAN houses a uranium conversion installation and a nuclear fuel manufacturing plant.
The ammunition
Trump did not specify the exact weapons used in the strikes, but experts suggest that the GBU-57, an American bomb that destroys the American bunker of 30,000 pounds (13,600 kilograms), probably deployed to destroy Fordow.
Officially known as the massive artillery penetrator, the GBU-57 is designed to excavate up to 200 feet (60 meters) underground before detonating, unlike conventional pumps that exploit about or close to the impact.
The GBU-57 tests began in 2004, and Boeing received a contract in 2009 to end its integration with the appropriate aircraft.
The plane
The only plane capable of transporting and deploying the GBU-57 is the B-2 spirit, a long-range signs of the US.
Before the strikes, the flight monitoring platforms and the US media reported the movement of several B-2 bombers that left a base in Missouri.
The B-2, with a range of 6,000 nautical miles (9,600 kilometers) without fuel replenishment, is designed to “penetrate the most advanced defenses of an enemy and achieve its most valuable and very fortified objectives,” according to the US army.
The B-2 was publicly presented for the first time in 1988 and flew for the first time in 1989. Its first operational delivery occurred in 1993. The plane has been used in military operations in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq.
What happens later?
Trump has asked Iran to “accept to end this war”, urging that “now is the moment of peace.”
However, it is not yet clear if the strikes will lead Iran to step back or increase the conflict even more.
If they will choose to respond, you can do it by attacking US military personnel in the Middle East, or trying to block the hormuz narrow, a vital shipping lane through which a fifth of the world oil supply passes.
