Boeing - Winner

 

President Donald Trump has said a ceasefire between Israel and Iran was in effect. Getty/Newsweek

The U.S. strikes on nuclear sites on Saturday were the first combat use of the GBU-57 MOP bunker busting bombs developed by Boeing for the U.S. Air Force.

The delivery of 14 bombs, 12 of which on the Fordow Nuclear Facility and two on the Natanz Nuclear Facility, caused severe damage to both sites, according to General Dan Caine, Chairman of the U.S Joint Chiefs of Staff

Trump went further, saying they were "completely and totally obliterated," although current and former Pentagon officials said that the full extent of the damage to Iran's nuclear capabilities was not immediately clear.

Jennifer Kavanagh, senior fellow & director of military analysis, Defense Priorities, told Newsweek "my guess is that Iran's nuclear program was not obliterated, it is hard to say how much damage was done to the actual nuclear enrichment site."

However, she added, "at the very least the U.S. and Israeli strikes have set the Iranian nuclear program back further, so there is no imminent threat."

The messaging from the U.S. and Israel about the bomb's effectiveness will give a boost to Boeing after a string of bad news—most recently the tragedy of its 787 passenger jet in India crashing minutes after takeoff this month killing all but one onboard.

It followed previous crashes in 2018 and 2019 of its 737 airplane while in 2024, it posted a loss of $11.8 billion in 2024, bringing total losses since 2019 to over $35 billion.