All bunker-busting bombs ‘went exactly where they were intended to go’ at Fordow: Joint Chiefs Chair Caine

Displaying video of the impacts of the bunker-busting bomb in field tests, Caine explained that an official at the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), as well as a colleague, were tasked with studying the nuclear facility of Fordow for over 15 years with the site as a military target.

"In the case of Fordow, the DTRA team understood with a high degree of competence the elements of the target required to kill its functions and the weapons were designed, planned and delivered to ensure that they achieve the effects in the mission space," Caine said, then showed an example clip of the 30,000-pound bomb being dropped in a field test, where the weapon pierced the ground above a tunnel, and then denotated far beneath the surface.

He later explained that the US dropped six bunker-busting bombs on Fordow with different intended purposes and that the sixth was also a backup if any of the others failed. "All six weapons at each vent at Fordow went exactly where they were intended to go," he added in the press conference.

"The majority of the damage we assess based on our extensive modeling was a blast layer combined with the impulse extending from the shock. Imagine what this looks like six times over," Caine said. "A point that I want to make here, the Joint Force does not do BDA by design. We don't grade our own homework. The intelligence community does. But here's what we know following the attacks and the strikes on Fordow. First, that the weapons were built, tested, and loaded properly. Two, the weapons were released on speed and on parameters. Three, the weapons all guided to their intended targets and to their intended aim points. Four, the weapons functioned as designed, meaning they exploded."

He then added that they knew the weapons detonated when they hit Fordow because of other intelligence gathered surrounding the bombing, including that one of the crew members on the mission to Fordow said, "This was the brightest explosion that I've ever seen. It literally looked like daylight."

Following the bombing, there were media reports based on a leaked "low confidence" preliminary assessment that suggested the strikes had only set the nuclear program back by months. However, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as well as President Donald Trump said that the attack "obliterated" the nuclear facilities.