Illustration of a granite mountain range at night with a distant orange flash, representing MOAB Iran strike plans against deep nuclear sites.

US Weighs MOAB Against Iran Nuclear and Energy Sites

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The U.S. military has drawn up new strike plans against Iran that include the possible use of the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb, the weapon nicknamed the “mother of all bombs,” CNN reported on Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026, citing multiple U.S. officials familiar with the matter. The MOAB Iran options would target energy infrastructure and nuclear sites if President Donald Trump orders combat operations to resume, either before or after the Nov. 3 midterm elections.

CNN’s sources did not say the plans had been approved. Reuters, which summarized the CNN report, said it could not immediately verify it.

What the MOAB Iran Plans Reportedly Include

One source told CNN that Trump ordered the military to develop additional strike packages against Iranian targets that include “a lot of energy infrastructure” and the potential use of a MOAB. According to that source, the planning language described the attack as coming “prior to US retrograde in CENTCOM AOR,” military shorthand for a pullback of U.S. forces from Central Command’s area of responsibility. CNN said the phrasing indicated the administration could launch the strikes, attempt to declare victory and then quickly pull everyone out.

A second source told CNN that military plans for striking Iranian nuclear sites, including the facility known as Pickaxe Mountain, explicitly call for using the MOAB. Dropping it would be the first use of the bomb in the conflict with Iran and would mark a notable escalation, the network reported.

Pickaxe Mountain and the Limits of the Bomb

Pickaxe Mountain sits near the Natanz nuclear complex, roughly 140 miles south of Tehran. In September, CNN reported that analysts at the Center for Strategic and International Studies had documented a surge in construction at the site, and that Israeli intelligence has suggested Iran may seek to move centrifuges there as part of uranium enrichment work. The U.S. and Israel believe Tehran has stored components of its nuclear program at Pickaxe, according to the CNN report republished by RNZ.

The obstacle is geology. The GPS-guided MOAB can destroy an area equivalent to about nine city blocks, but sources told CNN it likely lacks the ability to penetrate deep enough to destroy the suspected facilities at Pickaxe, which are believed to be protected by layers of granite, or other remaining deeply buried Iranian nuclear sites. The CSIS team found the granite mountain a difficult target even for the Pentagon’s heaviest non-nuclear bombs, CNN reported in September.

That difference matters. The MOAB is an air-burst weapon built for wide surface destruction. For deeply buried targets, the United States has relied on a different bomb, the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator, which American B-2 bombers dropped on Iran’s Fordow enrichment site in June 2025.

The MOAB’s Only Combat Use

The MOAB is the largest non-nuclear bomb in the U.S. arsenal and weighs about 21,600 pounds. It has been used in combat once, in April 2017, when U.S. forces dropped it on an Islamic State tunnel complex in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province. Officials familiar with the planning told CNN that questions remain over whether using it against Iran would achieve Washington’s strategic objectives.

Pressure to End the War

The plans come as Trump faces pressure to bring a deeply unpopular war to a close, CNN reported. He paused full combat operations earlier this year but has repeatedly threatened to strike Pickaxe. “We may hit Pickaxe very soon,” he told reporters in early September, adding that “we know everybody that’s moving” at the site. Trump continues to say his goal is to ensure Iran never obtains a nuclear weapon.

Tension has also risen at sea. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard navy said on Oct. 14 that a container ship carrying more than 2,500 containers sank after hitting a mine south of the Strait of Hormuz, Xinhua reported. The Boston Report covered the loss in Container Ship GFS Pride Sinks in Strait of Hormuz. Tehran has meanwhile been hardening its nuclear sites, as we reported in Iran Fortifying Nuclear Sites as Lawmaker Raises Dimona Threat, and a third U.S. aircraft carrier headed toward Iran earlier this month.

For now, the MOAB is one option in contingency planning rather than an announced decision. Whether Trump orders new strikes, and what weapons are used if he does, remains to be seen.

Sources