Why seizing Iran's nuclear stockpile would be "one of the riskiest" missions in history

How hard would it be to remove or destroy Iran's nuclear stockpile? President Trump has said eliminating the country's nuclear weapons capability is a key objective of his military campaign against Iran, but U.S. military experts say it would be one of the riskiest missions ever attempted. Last June, the United States significantly degraded Iran's nuclear infrastructure with massive "bunker buster" bombs designed to reach deeply buried material. But the International Atomic Energy Agency says Iran still maintains about 972 pounds of 60% enriched uranium, a short step away from the 90% enrichment levels needed for high-yield military warheads. Without a diplomatic deal to remove or destroy the stockpile, a military operation involving boots on the ground deep in Iran is probably the only option. (An air campaign with massive bunker buster munitions that might entomb the stockpile deep underground may be under consideration, but there's no guarantee the enriched uranium would be eradicated.) U.S. Special Operations Forces commandos have been training for decades to seize or neutralize Tehran's uranium. They've practiced repeatedly at sites in the U.S. designed to replicate the tunnels that lead to the underground stockpile. These are the military's most elite forces, who have undergone intensive physical and technical training for this type of mission. But an operation to move or destroy the highly enriched uranium would be more difficult and complex than anything U.S. Special Operations forces have ever attempted, experts told CBS News. "This would not only be one of the riskiest special operations missions in American history, but very possibly the largest," said CBS News national security analyst Aaron MacLean, a Marine veteran who deployed to Afghanistan in 2009-10. The U.S. has engaged in high-risk military operations that have ended in catastrophe, and that's weighing heavily on military planners, operators and undoubtedly Mr. Trump and his advisers. Operation Eagle Claw was the failed 1980 mission to rescue 53 American hostages held captive by Iran after the ayatollahs took power. After a series of mishaps, including a sandstorm, mechanical problems and a helicopter collision, the operation was aborted. No hostages were rescued, but eight American service members were killed. Thirteen years later, U.S. Special Operations forces mounted an ill-fated attempt to capture a Somali warlord in downtown Mogadishu, ending in the deaths of 18 U.S. Army rangers. The debacle, which became known as Black Hawk Down, was a searing event for generations of U.S. military officials and national security policymakers. Among the many lessons drawn from these disasters was that speed is the coin of the realm. The quicker you get to the target, achieve the objective on the ground and exit, the less that can go wrong. Many of the U.S. military's most successful operations have been exceptionally fast. The 2011 raid on Osama Bin Laden's compound in Pakistan took approximately 38 minutes. In the operation that captured Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro in January, Special Operations Forces were on the ground for less than an hour. But MacLean said that securing Iran's nuclear stockpile could take many hours — and possibly days. "When you're moving quickly, the enemy has less time to organize itself, less time to respond, so there's less danger to you," he said. The IAEA has said Iran's nuclear stockpile is in two or possibly three locations. And U.S. and Israeli spy agencies have been singularly focused on where the enriched uranium is held. It's stored in large steel canisters roughly the size of a home propane tank. Too large to carry out in a backpack, the canisters would have to be transported on trucks. At least half are far underground in Iran's Isfahan facility, deep in the interior of Iran. The rest is likely located underneath Iran's Natanz facility, some 70 miles from Isfahan. There is some evidence, according to the IAEA, that the Iranians moved some of the enriched uranium to a site known as Pickaxe Mountain, close to Natanz. To secure all of Iran's stockpiles, U.S. forces would have to mount multiple missions, making the entire operation much more logistically difficult. The main U.S. military contingent would be highly specialized units of Delta Force trained in "rendering safe" nuclear materials. They would likely be flown in from U.S. Naval ships in the Arabian Sea, nearly 1,000 miles away from the target. Another possibility would be to launch from Kuwait or Eastern Iraq, a considerably shorter distance.