Brian Kennedy: Removing Iran's Uranium Would Require Thousands Of U.S. Troops

RealClearPolitics  |  Brian Kennedy

An American military intervention to physically secure and remove Iran's enriched uranium stockpiles would necessitate the deployment of thousands of U.S. ground troops on the territory of the Islamic Republic. This assessment highlights the operational limitations of relying solely on stand-off air and missile strikes to permanently neutralize the Iranian nuclear weapons program.

Securing deeply buried and heavily fortified facilities like Fordow and Natanz demands physical control of the sites to prevent the dispersal or hidden relocation of fissile material. Historically, the United States has faced severe logistical and tactical challenges when attempting to dismantle hostile weapons of mass destruction infrastructure under active combat conditions. A large-scale ground operation of this nature would inevitably trigger a wider regional conflict, drawing in regional proxies and necessitating robust defensive postures across the Middle East. Consequently, policymakers must weigh the immense human and financial costs of a ground invasion against the strategic risk of a nuclear-armed Tehran.

Comment

Securing the deeply buried Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant beneath the Alborz mountains requires specialised ground forces trained for heavily fortified, contaminated environments. The U.S. Army's 20th CBRNE Command would face unprecedented exploitation and neutralisation challenges inside these subterranean complexes. Aerial bombardment by GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators can collapse entrances but cannot guarantee the complete verification or recovery of enriched uranium stockpiles. Consequently, any non-consensual denuclearisation of Iran remains fundamentally a manpower-intensive ground campaign rather than a surgical air operation.