On June 18, just days before the U.S. reportedly dropped 16 30,000-pound bunker buster bombs on Iran’s Fordow nuclear enrichment plant, MIT Professor Emeritus Ted Postol debunked myths about those bombs in an interview with retired Lt. Col. Danny Davis on his “Deep Dive” YouTube channel. In the interview, Postol argued that Trump likely was given bad advice from people who have no idea what they are talking about who themselves have been brainwashed by military contractors who are exaggerating the bomb’s capabilities in order to sell them. Postol cited a Chinese study reporting that underground structures can be built with features that can deflect a ground penetrating munitions by up to 25 degrees off its intended course, reducing the amount of damage it can actually do to the target. The principles are likely known to Iranian engineers who built the Fordow plant, knowing that it would be a target.
“Targeting and destroying such bunkers is much harder than presented—and success requires extremely accurate intelligence and direct-hit capability, which may not exist,” the accompanying summary concludes. “Overall, the faith in bunker buster success is questionable, and U.S. political leaders may be basing decisions on overly optimistic or flawed assumptions.”
