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Trump is thinking about more bombing of nuclear sites in Iran

        US President Donald Trump said October 15 in an interview with Newsmax: “No plans to deploy troops on ground in Iran,” “I wouldn’t use nuclear,” and “We’ll take a shot at [Pickaxe Mountain.]” 
        Trump told Newsmax that: “Their nuclear is buried under millions of tons of mountain. Now we’re looking at Pickaxe Mountain (where the US and Israel believe Tehran has stored components of its nuclear program.) We may have to go there. We’ll take a shot at that one. We’ll knock it out fast.” 
        For that ‘shot’, the US military has developed strike plans, should President Donald Trump give the order to resume combat operations, that include using the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb or MOAB, nicknamed the “mother of all bombs”. It is a 30-foot-long, 21,600-pound, GPS-guided munition. Trump said in the interview with Newsmax : “It’s not nuclear at all, this is just an extremely large bomb. It’s like a tiny nuclear bomb. But the ‘Mother of All Bombs’ is one big bomb – but it’s not nuclear. I wouldn’t use nuclear, we don’t have to.” 
        (MOAB detonates with the power of 18,000 pounds of tritonal explosives, but that pales in comparison to a nuclear bomb. The MOAB explosive yield is 0.011 kilotons, nuclear yield is 10-180 kilotons.) 
        MOAB was developed during the Iraq war as an air blast-type warhead that explodes before hitting the ground projecting such a massive blast that, it was hoped, would pressure troops into surrendering or not even fighting. The MOAB target set was expanded to include targets buried underground in caves or tunnels, but it was not designed as a deep penetration warhead and likely lacks the capability to penetrate deep enough to destroy the suspected nuclear material and equipment at the Pickaxe Mountain and Esfahan nuclear sites. 
        Question: What would using MOAB on Pickaxe Mountain and the Esfahan tunnel complex accomplish? Answer: Two bombed locations where Iran will not allow IAEA inspector access, in addition to Fordow and Natanz which were bombed with MOABs in June 2025. No information about what is under the rubble at those locations. No new information about how much enriched uranium and how many intact uranium centrifuges Iran may have. But big headline stories that might help Trump in the midterms, or might not.

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