It was June 23, 2025, when US President Donald Trump, recent off Operation Midnight Hammer, took to Reality Social to declare victory. “Monumental injury was completed to all nuclear websites in Iran, as proven by satellite tv for pc photographs. Obliteration is an correct time period,” he wrote.

Minimize to 2026. Simply over eight months after the June conflict, Washington is again at it, launching Operation Epic Fury, as soon as once more aimed toward stopping Iran from buying nuclear weapons. “Obliteration,” it appears, wanted a sequel.

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Operation Epic Fury is that sequel. The distinction, nonetheless, lies within the concentrating on sample noticed throughout the June 2025 strikes. The US focused Fordow with a dozen bunker busters, hanging 6 key areas, delivered by B-2 stealth bombers. The subsequent goal was Natanz which noticed two such strikes, together with a restricted variety of Tomahawk cruise missile hits. Isfahan obtained even fewer, focused solely by Tomahawk missiles launched from distant submarines.

This concentrating on sample aligns with prior intelligence disclosures. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in April 2018, revealed schematics of the Fordow enrichment web site. When these schematics are superimposed on satellite tv for pc imagery accessed by India At present by means of Vantor, they align intently with the location’s noticed format.

India At present’s Open Supply Intelligence staff, utilizing historic satellite tv for pc imagery, performed a put up strike evaluation incorporating elevation profiling on Google Earth together with terrain modelling. Ridge heights have been mapped and subsurface depth estimated to evaluate the diploma of pure safety accessible to the underground services.

When this terrain primarily based evaluation is examined alongside current US and Israel strike patterns, the rising give attention to Isfahan turns into extra pronounced. An evaluation by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists launched earlier this week signifies that greater than 500 kilograms of enriched uranium could have been moved to safer, closely shielded areas inside the mountainous terrain round Isfahan. This motion is assessed to have occurred not not too long ago, however previous to the June 2025 strikes.

This locations Isfahan on the centre of present operational consideration, according to the said goal of degrading Iran’s nuclear functionality.

WHY WAS URANIUM MOVED?

India At present’s Open Supply Intelligence staff used elevation profiling on Google Earth, together with satellite tv for pc imagery, to estimate the peak of ridges near the services. Whereas some elements, equivalent to analysis items, are normally constructed on the floor, however a lot of the crucial infrastructure used for nuclear storage and enrichment is usually constructed inside these mountains.

At Isfahan, knowledgeable interpretation of satellite tv for pc imagery means that the majority of the identifiable infrastructure on the floor, significantly the laboratories and conversion services, is situated above floor. However the web site’s actual strategic benefit could lie subsequent door. A steep mountain rises instantly alongside the ability, and satellite tv for pc photographs seem to point out a tunnel opening at its base, presumably resulting in a hardened underground storage space.

Elevation profiling signifies that the mountain rises by greater than 400 metres, or about 1,300 ft, from the encompassing floor.

By comparability, the ridge close to Fordo is just about 70 to 80 metres excessive, and Natanz about 40 to 50 metres. So this isn’t merely a deeper web site. It’s shielded by a a lot bigger mountain mass, at a scale that essentially modifications strike feasibility altogether.

In response to US Air Power reality sheets and Division of Defence testing paperwork, the GBU 57 Huge Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) or just the bunker buster bomb is designed to destroy deeply buried and hardened targets, together with weapons of mass destruction services.

Deployed by way of B2 stealth bombers that struck Fordow and Natanz over the last offensive, open supply assessments counsel that the munition can penetrate roughly 60 metres of earth or about 18 metres of bolstered concrete. Even below splendid situations, this locations Fordow inside attain by means of repeated strikes.

Satellite tv for pc imagery helps this evaluation. Evaluation signifies that six crucial nodes at Fordow have been struck throughout Operation Midnight Hammer, with two GBU 57 munitions impacting every node. Even when the estimated penetration capability is taken at 60 metres, repeated strikes on the identical location would have considerably elevated the depth of impression and structural injury.

This will clarify the absence of credible reporting suggesting that rebuilding work at Fordow was critically thought-about or tried. It additionally gives context to the boldness mirrored in Donald Trump’s June 23 assertion declaring the websites ‘obliterated’.

Isfahan, nonetheless, lies a number of multiples past that threshold. Over 400 meters of mountain mass absorbs and disperses kinetic vitality lengthy earlier than any strike can attain crucial infrastructure.

Isfahan’s benefit isn’t just geological; it’s deeply army. The area sits inside a dense and layered defence ecosystem, sometimes called Iran’s central army belt.

The presence of Khatami Air Base (eighth Tactical Air Base) ensures steady air defence protection, with interceptor plane like F-14s enabling fast response to incoming threats. That is complemented by Badr Air Base, an IRGC-linked aviation facility that helps UAV operations and dispersed aerial exercise, complicating concentrating on and surveillance.

On the periphery, the HESA airfield close to Shahin Shahr features as a testing and integration hub for plane and drones, whereas Shahed Aviation Industries anchors Iran’s UAV warfare functionality, producing loitering munitions and long-range strike drones.

Extra layers come from the Shahid Vatanpour Military Air Base and the Saheb al Zaman Corps base, reinforcing the IRGC presence and floor assist infrastructure. Crucially, the broader area hosts IRGC aerospace and missile services, together with storage, meeting, and munitions manufacturing websites.

This clustering creates a hardened army atmosphere, the place air defence, strike functionality, and logistics are co-located. Mixed with excessive underground depth, it makes Isfahan not simply protected, however operationally resilient and considerably tougher to neutralise.

Nevertheless, India At present has not independently verified whether or not this army power in Isfahan stays totally intact, given the restricted availability of knowledge and the absence of constant official reporting from Tehran. Within the absence of current satellite tv for pc imagery, the extent of harm brought on by the most recent strikes can’t be independently assessed.

A video displaying flames rising from what was recognized as an ammunition depot in Isfahan following a current strike was shared by Donald Trump on Reality Social and later confirmed by US Secretary of Protection Pete Hegseth.

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