How Israel's air force cracked Iran's underground nuclear facility

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• In "Star Wars", the Death Star is cracked through a ventilation shaft: that's not how it works with Iran's underground nuclear facilities.
• Israel laid the groundwork for the apparently successful attack on the Iranian complex in Natan in April, October and December last year.
• In the current attack, Tehran's radar systems and air defenses were first deliberately disabled.
• Bunker-busting JDAM bombs destroyed the complex.

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Alongside the Fordo nuclear facility near Ghom, the Natans nuclear facility is one of two Iranian facilities in which uranium can be enriched. The complex in Natans is said to be 40 to 50 meters underground and protected by a 7.6-meter-thick wall.

This has apparently not been enough: pictures and videos from Natans show thick clouds of smoke over the area. The nuclear facility is said to have been completely destroyed, although official confirmation of the damage is still pending.

How did Jerusalem's air force manage this attack? Without two basic preconditions, it would not have come this far: First, Israel took out Syria's air defenses in December in order to use the airspace to deploy its own tanker aircraft - read more here.

Strike against Iran

Why the fall of Syria's Bashar al-Assad was decisive for Israel's attack

Targeting Iran's radar system and air defense

Furthermore, Benjamin Netanyahu laid the groundwork in April and October 2024: Following Iranian missile attacks on Israel, Jerusalem had retaliated - and specifically targeted Iran's air defenses. Radar systems and anti-aircraft missiles are said to have been destroyed near Natan.

Iranian air defenses are also the first target in Israel's current strike: F-15, F-16 and F-35 jets are once again attacking radar systems and air defenses to pave the way for further waves. Jerusalem's forces are working their way from west to east.

In this way, Israel's air force probably succeeded in advancing as far as the Natan nuclear facility in order to attack the Raad-2 air defense system there, which was apparently unable to stop the attack.

Final act: The bunker busters

The sequence of the Natans attack is therefore clear: F-35 stealth jets presumably form the tip of the spear, first firing anti-radar missiles at the radar installations. They track the radar waves back to their point of origin and take out Iran's air defenses. As a result, it is virtually blind.

As a result, Iran's surface-to-air missiles become the target, which are rendered harmless with relatively small GBU-39 glide bombs. Heavy, bunker-busting JDAM bombs from US production are then used to hit the underground nuclear facility.

However, they are not used in the same way as in "Star Wars" when Luke Skywalker is able to destroy the Death Star because he hits a ventilation shaft that leads deep inside the mega-weapon.

Normally, even underground bunkers do not have an elevator that leads directly into them - and becomes a security risk. The entrances are usually some distance away - and lead at a shallow angle into the buried facilities.

The solution for Jerusalem is nevertheless simple: heavy bombs are simply dropped from above onto the same sill until the protective soil has been removed and the bunker has become vulnerable.