President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that the United States intends to strike Pickaxe Mountain, an Iranian nuclear facility under construction deep underground, as military operations against Iran continue.
"We'll be hitting that area pretty soon, and very heavily," Trump told reporters at the White House. He has previously made similar threats regarding the site.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Israeli intelligence assessed that Iran transferred centrifuges, which are essential for enriching uranium to weapons-grade, to Pickaxe Mountain in the fall. Trump did not deny the report when questioned by a reporter, stating that Iran "may have" moved the centrifuges but that the U.S. does not have official confirmation.
Pickaxe Mountain, known in Iran as Kūh-e Kolang or "Mount Kolang," is a complex of tunnels and facilities built into a mountain. Iran declared it a centrifuge assembly site in 2021 after a similar plant in Natanz was destroyed. Analysts reviewing satellite imagery indicate that construction is ongoing at the site, which is located approximately 100 meters underground. Its operational timeline remains unclear.
Kelsey Davenport, director for nonproliferation policy at the Arms Control Association, noted that the site's location is a cause for concern. However, she added that the U.S. and Israel did not target Pickaxe Mountain in previous strikes in June 2025 or later in the year, suggesting it was not perceived as an imminent threat.
"Given the intensity of the U.S. and Israeli intelligence penetration of Iran's nuclear program, I think that suggests that the U.S. does not view Pickaxe as an imminent threat," Davenport said.
Trump also stated that there is evidence Iran is attempting to rebuild its nuclear program, which was significantly impacted by U.S. strikes last summer. "They're trying to possibly reconstitute a site," Trump said. "We'll hit that site. Any site where they're even thinking about nuclear, we'll be hitting it very, very powerfully."
Experts suggest that the presence of centrifuges or other nuclear technologies at Pickaxe Mountain could motivate a U.S. attack. Some analysts believe a strike might emulate the 2025 attacks on Isfahan, as the depth of Pickaxe Mountain would present targeting challenges even for the military's most powerful penetrating bombs.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stated Tuesday that "if anybody in the world can reach anything on ... God's green earth, it's the United States military, the most powerful military in the world," when asked if the U.S. could destroy what lies beneath Pickaxe Mountain.
Uncertainty surrounds the whereabouts and status of Iran's centrifuges. Iran has not allowed inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) access to its centrifuge manufacturing sites since 2020. Before the recent conflict, Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated the U.S. assessed that Iran was not enriching uranium at the time.
Olli Heinonen, former deputy director-general for safeguards at the IAEA, noted that Iran has developed a more self-sufficient nuclear program in recent years, with components potentially manufactured at numerous facilities across the country. "There is a real question mark about what types of centrifuges survived [and] how many survived" the U.S. strikes last summer, Davenport said, adding that this uncertainty highlights the need for IAEA inspections to resume.
Heinonen suggested that if Iran possesses all the necessary components, it could assemble centrifuges elsewhere, as it is unlikely all 20 potential manufacturing sites were destroyed in the 2026 bombing campaign.