Name: BREAKING: What we know about U.S bombs striking Iranian nuclear sites
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Let's go right to our NBC News Pentagon correspondent Courtney QB Courtney. Good evening on the president's social media post

He says that the United States bombed these three

Nuclear sites in Iran including a full payload of bombs dropped on the primary site that would

Courtney imply at least for all practical purposes that in order to

Successfully bomb that site the United States would have used those buster buster bombing buster bombs that have yet to be utilized on these on b2 bombers

Yeah, so we look we don't have a lot of detail at this point

Here's a couple things that I would take away from the president's truth social number one

He said we have completed our various successful that to me would indicate that this was sort of the bombers went in or the air

Potentially other aircraft most likely other aircraft as well went in here. They conducted this bombing run and they got out

They've cleared Iranian airspace. That's generally the point at which

Military officials or the White House, I guess would would release any kind of information once they are clear of that

Potentially dangerous airspace over Iran. What we don't know is that exactly what was used here

So if we look at some of the factors that we've seen today

We know that some b2 bombers a handful of them took off from Whiteman Air Force Base over, Missouri

It was about two o'clock in the morning Eastern Time. That is enough time for them to get to Iran

They have the ability Jose to fly extremely long distances

We're talking like three-day missions refueling in the air never actually touching ground

Again, we don't have confirmation that was what was used here

But we have been talking all week about how difficult it would be to actually bomb Fordo

The actual facility sits somewhere in the neighborhood of about 300 feet below the surface of the earth and it's underneath

Reinforced concrete now the US has these bunker busters. You mentioned

They're technically called a massive ordnance penetrator and what they are these huge really heavy bombs

They're only about five or six thousand pounds of total explosives, but they're about thirty thousand pounds in total payloads

Meaning that the majority of that weight is coming from these really heavy strong

Basically outer casings that have the ability to penetrate deep into the earth about 200 feet down before

Detonating Jose if they really wanted to take out Fordo

It would take a number of these mops or these bunker busters to just continue to pound at that

Concrete until they're able to fully break through it again

We don't know that that was used but it makes the most sense and we've as we've been saying

Israel simply does not have they don't have bombs of this size and they don't have the aircraft the b2

One thing I was surprised about this was that the US hit three different sites as we heard from from the president here tonight

Not just at Fordo that we've been talking about. They also hit Natanz

Israel has already been striking Natanz over the last week plus now and they also hit Esfahan now

The next big question is what several questions one is the u.s

Going to continue is this a one-and-done based on the president's statement. He said completed, you know

We'll take that for now as to be this mission right now is completed for the United States the next question will Iran respond and how the biggest concern all along is that

Iran or more likely Iranian proxies would go after u.s. Installations and assets in the region

There's a lot of them right within very close striking distance of Iran

But one thing that the u.s. Has going for them and this is number one. They've started getting some Americans out of there

They started moving some assets around to get him out of harm's way

But also in the last nine days or so Israel has really taken out a lot of Iran's

Conventional capabilities as well not just going after their nuclear sites

So we're talking about their radars their launchers and even some of their ballistic missiles

The third big concern here is when you're hitting a nuclear site or three of them

Is there potential for radioactive material to spill into the ground to spill into the atmosphere Jose?

I am far from an expert on nuclear material and radioactive material

But I have been reaching out to people who are experts on this

They say that the risk of that at Fordo is expected to be relatively low

James Acton who's an expert on these sorts of issues says that the the the material there is very low in

Radioactivity anyway at Fordo and so the risk of it spilling into the atmosphere is low the same with Natanz

We also heard from the IAEA this week after those first strikes on Natanz

They said there is very little indication of anything getting out. The big concern here is if they were to hit Bashir

That's at one of the facilities that where there could be some sort of a fallout of radioactive material

And these are all the questions that are up in the air and Courtney once again, I can't thank you enough for the knowledge that you bring to us, but the fact that the president says that this main site was successfully hit

It could only be successfully destroyed by those

Ordinances that that you are referring to and in a way they're they're not only bombs. They're actually almost like drill tips that are able to through to

Penetrate deep in the ground and then at a predetermined distance or depth detonate

What are the possibilities that any other ordinance could have been used?

Very high. I think that we this is we again

We don't know but the sorts of planning that was going into this that we've been hearing the sorts of ideas that have been out

There remember this is not like, you know

Ten days ago the United States and Israel started talking about the potential for one day going after Iran's nuclear program

And what it would look like these are the kinds of plans that have been there for years and years

And they just update them and they dust them off as as things develop

The plans I have heard about about have generally included more than just using these massive ordnance penetrators

The the big question is as the Sun starts to come up over Iran and I in an hour or two whenever it is is will the the US or Israel or anyone be able to get any kind of a

Ground assessment of exactly what happened on the ground if they were able to with these bombs really obliterate everything on the ground and really

Destroy the facility or is there some way that with these bombs that they drop they can almost make it collapse in on itself

For all intents and purposes entomb itself underground so that it still would be rendered unusable

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