US Defence Secretary Boasts Military Capability Amid Questions on Iran Nuclear Site Strike Plan

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a diplomatic response when asked about America’s military capability to strike Iran’s underground nuclear facilities at Pickaxe Mountain. The issue has drawn public attention amid reports that Iran has moved centrifuge machines and uranium to the complex. “Many of our capabilities are classified,” Hegseth said during a hearing on Capitol Hill when asked whether the US could penetrate the deeply buried complex. “But if there is any party in the world that can reach anything… it is the United States military,” Hegseth asserted. The Pickaxe Mountain site is located near the Natanz nuclear facility in Iran’s hilly interior. Analysts and intelligence agencies believe the complex is buried far deeper than facilities struck by the US during Operation Midnight Hammer in June 2025. In recent weeks, President Donald Trump has repeatedly highlighted Pickaxe Mountain as a potential bombing target. “We will hit that area in the near future, and hit it very hard,” Trump said on Tuesday. According to Israeli sources familiar with the matter, Israeli intelligence believes Iran has moved part of its stockpile of highly enriched uranium and advanced enrichment centrifuges to Pickaxe Mountain. Locating and destroying Iran’s roughly 1,000 pounds of highly enriched uranium remains a primary objective for both the US and Israel. However, Trump appeared to dismiss the Israeli reports. When asked if Iran had moved centrifuges to the site, Trump replied, “we don’t have the records on that.” Non-proliferation expert Andrea Stricker assessed that Trump must act to disable Pickaxe Mountain to prevent Iran from completing the site’s construction, rebuilding enrichment or nuclear weapons options, and accessing thousands of remaining centrifuges. On the other hand, several experts doubt the effectiveness of a US military strike against such a deeply buried underground site. James Acton, co-director of nuclear policy at the Carnegie Endowment, expressed his scepticism via a post on platform X. He doubted the US could do more than collapse the access tunnels to the Pickaxe Mountain facility. “That is not a game changer,” Acton concluded.