Noteworthy News

[Thumpalumpacus]

But even before the strikes were carried out, some US officials had raised pointed doubts about whether the MOPs was even capable of destroying the deeper tunnels.

While there were some questions about whether US bunker busters were capable of destroying the underground portions of Fordow — which had been the focus of the administration’s planning for the operation — multiple sources familiar with the discussions told CNN the likelihood of successfully doing the same at Isfahan was an even bigger question.

Early assessments raise questions over whether US destroyed bulk of enriched Iranian nuclear material

The depth is it. MOPs are rated for 200' penetration, Fordow is at least 260' -- which might be penetrated by multiple accurate strikes -- but if Esfahan is much deeper, then you'll need reload/restrike efforts. Diego Garcia not being available, we can't shuttle-bomb these sites, and how many MOPs do we have in the inventory anyway? It's another 25-hour flight home, reservicing, reloading, and reflying the mission against an alerted enemy -- not that they might be capable of much, but whatever.

We may have taken out some goodies, but 14 of these bombs is not, I think, enough. And if Esfahan is 300 or 400 foot deep, you'll need four or six of these bombs hitting a very tight CEP (say, 25 foot) to drill down that deep.

I think this is more dead flies on the music score, Trump trying to flood Iran's zone with another decision process while they deal with Israeli attacks. But I don't think we have the capability to do this.