Opinion | The Great Pickaxe Challenge: Can Trump Really Destroy Iran's Most Guarded Nuclear Fortress?

Updated: Jul 24, 2026 18:43 pm IST Published On Jul 24, 2026 18:39 pm IST Last Updated On Jul 24, 2026 18:43 pm IST

Published On Jul 24, 2026 18:39 pm IST

Last Updated On Jul 24, 2026 18:43 pm IST

The war in Iran is at a critical crossroads. Ever since the fragile ceasefire broke when the US struck 80 targets in Iran on July 8, the scale and scope of the conflict have escalated rapidly. With the war not giving the US a decisive victory, President Donald Trump is now contemplating two options.

Option 1 is to insert ground forces along the Southern Coast of Iran, possibly on Kharg Island and areas that dominate the two shoulders of the narrow Strait of Hormuz. However, most analysts opine that it would be a suicide mission, with landed troops being vulnerable to strong Iranian retaliation due to close proximity to Iran's mainland and the open and flat terrain that offers hardly any cover.

The second option being considered is the destruction of a newly constructed nuclear facility buried deep in the Pickaxe Mountain, in close proximity to the Natanz Nuclear Plant. As per American intelligence estimates, this may be the place where Iran has kept 450 kilograms of highly enriched (60%) Uranium, which has been one of the points of contention in the current war. In fact, President Trump has expressed publicly more than once his desire to take out this facility. Speaking on a TV show on July 13, he said, "We have eyes on it, and Pickaxe Mountain is a possible target for a nice big fat shot right in the front door." He repeated it again on July 22, saying, "We'll be hitting the area pretty soon, and very heavily."

The option to strike the Pickaxe nuclear facility is not only tricky but also poses difficult questions. Can the US military destroy the Pickaxe nuclear facility? If yes, can this be the decisive blow that the US could consider a victory to walk away from the war? What are the precedents of such operations, and did they succeed at delivering a decisive blow? To answer some of these questions, it is important to explore the Pickaxe Mountain facility and the military options available to the US to 'obliterate' it completely.

An Underground Fortress

Pickaxe Mountain, also known in Iran as Kuh-e Kolang Gaz La, is a mid-size mountain around 1,680 metres above sea level and is a part of the Zagros Mountain Range. The nuclear site is a fortified underground facility, located around 220 km south of ~CHECK~Tehran and about 2 km from Natanz, Iran's primary nuclear enrichment facility.

The entire complex is spread around one square kilometre of........

© NDTV