The warnings came after President Donald Trump told Newsmax on Thursday that he was weighing dropping the 21,600 pound MOAB — which he described as "like a tiny nuclear bomb" — and "may have to go to Pickaxe Mountain," while ruling out nuclear weapons or US ground troops in Iran. CNN and CBS News reported earlier that the White House and Pentagon had drafted strike options using the MOAB against Iranian military sites, energy infrastructure and the Pickaxe Mountain nuclear complex before or after the November 3 midterm elections, prior to a potential US troop withdrawal from the region.
While US military planners told CNN the surface air-blast munition is "definitely not designed as a deep penetration warhead" and would largely serve as a "fireworks show" for psychological effect against facilities buried under granite, nuclear analyst David Albright noted the blast could still destroy surface support structures and overcome tunnel entrance blast traps. Closing known access routes at Pickaxe Mountain would place the complex under monitored closure similar to the Esfahan Mountain complex and the underground Natanz enrichment plant, after prior strikes with GBU-57 earth penetrators destroyed Fordow and depleted the US bunker-buster stockpile.