Amid heightening tensions between Iran and Israel, the United States is weighing whether to intervene directly in the war or not.

According to Al Jazeera, officials and experts have suggested that the US’s 13,000kg bunker buster bomb is the only weapon capable of destroying the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant, a facility “believed to be central to Tehran’s nuclear programme and carved deep into a mountain”.

If the US uses these weapons against Iran, it would “represent a major shift from primarily intercepting missiles on Israel’s behalf to conducting active offensive strikes against Iran”, Al Jazeera notes.

The US Air Force has said multiple bombs can be dropped sequentially, either by the same aircraft or by several, allowing each strike to burrow deeper, amplifying the overall impact.

While Israel also uses US-made bunker busters, including the GBU-28 and BLU-109, they have a much shallower penetration range and are not capable of reaching depths of fortified sites such as the Fordow nuclear facility in Iran.

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