The question of whether the US can destroy the Pickaxe Mountain nuclear facility will partly be an intelligence race of who can outwit whom, matching offensive and defensive capabilities.
Reports on Friday that the United States was ordering an additional round of 30,000-pound (13,600-kilogram) mega bunker buster bombs, known as the Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP), on an emergent basis raised the issue anew of whether the American military possesses the capability to end Iran’s nuclear program, should it decide to attack.
There are at least two avenues from which to analyze the question.
One is the fact that Washington is ordering new mega bunker buster bombs for the first time in years without carrying out a standard competitive bidding process.