{ "archive_path": "archive/1789121055.822781", "base_url": "www.twz.com/news-features/work-at-underground-test-site-a-new-indicator-of-possible-strikes-on-irans-pickaxe-mountain-bunker", "basename": "work-at-underground-test-site-a-new-indicator-of-possible-strikes-on-irans-pickaxe-mountain-bunker", "bookmarked_date": "2026-09-11 10:04", "canonical": { "archive_org_path": "https://web.archive.org/web/www.twz.com/news-features/work-at-underground-test-site-a-new-indicator-of-possible-strikes-on-irans-pickaxe-mountain-bunker", "dom_path": "output.html", "favicon_path": "favicon.ico", "git_path": "git/", "google_favicon_path": "https://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=www.twz.com", "headers_path": "headers.json", "htmltotext_path": "htmltotext.txt", "index_path": "index.html", "media_path": "media/", "mercury_path": "mercury/content.html", "pdf_path": "output.pdf", "readability_path": "readability/content.html", "screenshot_path": "screenshot.png", "singlefile_path": "singlefile.html", "warc_path": "warc/", "wget_path": "www.twz.com/news-features/work-at-underground-test-site-a-new-indicator-of-possible-strikes-on-irans-pickaxe-mountain-bunker.html" }, "domain": "www.twz.com", "extension": "", "hash": "3FG7TTSPJ3SWQSAH0JTQ", "history": { "archive_org": [], "dom": [], "favicon": [ { "cmd": [ "curl", "--silent", "--location", "--compressed", "--max-time", "120", "--output", "favicon.ico", "--user-agent", "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) curl/curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "https://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=www.twz.com" ], "cmd_version": "curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "end_ts": "2026-09-11T13:43:42.017063+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "favicon.ico", "pwd": "/data/archive/1789121055.822781", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-09-11T13:43:41.415707+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "git": [], "headers": [ { "cmd": [ "curl", "--silent", "--location", "--compressed", "--head", "--max-time", "120", "--user-agent", "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) curl/curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "https://www.twz.com/news-features/work-at-underground-test-site-a-new-indicator-of-possible-strikes-on-irans-pickaxe-mountain-bunker" ], "cmd_version": "curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "end_ts": "2026-09-11T13:43:42.430101+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "headers.json", "pwd": "/data/archive/1789121055.822781", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-09-11T13:43:42.026586+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "htmltotext": [], "media": [], "mercury": [ { "cmd": [ "/app/node_modules/@postlight/parser/cli.js", "https://www.twz.com/news-features/work-at-underground-test-site-a-new-indicator-of-possible-strikes-on-irans-pickaxe-mountain-bunker" ], "cmd_version": "1.0.0", "end_ts": "2026-09-11T13:44:28.603736+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "mercury", "pwd": "/data/archive/1789121055.822781", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-09-11T13:44:25.140798+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "pdf": [], "readability": [ { "cmd": [ "/app/node_modules/readability-extractor/readability-extractor", "/tmp/tmpmakk0fml", "https://www.twz.com/news-features/work-at-underground-test-site-a-new-indicator-of-possible-strikes-on-irans-pickaxe-mountain-bunker" ], "cmd_version": "0.0.11", "end_ts": "2026-09-11T13:44:25.126417+00:00", "index_texts": [ "Work at a specialized underground weapons test site in New Mexico, contracted earlier this year, was linked to planning for a potential new operation targeting Iranian nuclear facilities, according to a report from CNN. The U.S. military has notably left Iran\u2019s hardest-to-reach site under Pickaxe Mountain untouched so far, but President Donald Trump and other U.S. officials have been openly talking about striking it.\n\n\n\nOn February 27, the day before U.S. and Israeli forces launched their initial wave of strikes on Iran, the Pentagon\u2019s Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) quietly announced it had awarded a sole-source deal to Pate Construction Co., Inc., for new construction at the so-called Alternate Seismic Hardrock in Situ Test (ALT-SHIST) site. The work was needed to support an upcoming classified live-fire test. ALT-SHIST is situated within the White Sands Missile Range (WSMR), a sprawling U.S. Army-managed complex in New Mexico\u2019s Jornada del Muerto desert basin. DTRA is a relatively small and obscure organization that plays a leading role in U.S. military efforts to develop new and improved ways to respond to Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) threats.\n\n\n\nWSMR and DTRA have come up in discussions about strikes on Iran in the past. The U.S. military\u2019s heaviest conventional air-dropped weapon, the 30,000-pound-class GBU-57/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) bunker buster bomb, has been extensively tested at multiple sites there in the past. DTRA was also directly involved in its initial development. MOPs made their combat debut during U.S. strikes last year on underground Iranian nuclear facilities at Fordow and Natanz as part of Operation Midnight Hammer. The possibility has been raised that a different site within WSMR may have been used to test the plan of attack against Fordow, which involved two ventilation shafts being hit with six GBU-57/Bs each. The bombs were dropped in rapid succession, with each one burrowing deeper and deeper into the facility below. WSMR also happens to contain the site of the first atomic bomb test in 1945.\n\n\n\nA map showing the general location of White Sands Missile Range, with an inset giving a better sense of how expansive it is. Holloman Air Force Base, which juts into the southern end of the range complex, is also highlighted. Google Maps \n\n\n\n\u201cThe plans for the test [at ALT-SHIST] were connected to the Iran war,\u201d CNN said in its story, published yesterday, citing unnamed sources \u201cfamiliar with the matter.\u201d Beyond that, the planned testing was tied to a \u201cneed to develop a way to target Iran\u2019s deepest-buried underground facilities and, likely, simulate U.S. strikes against specific nuclear facilities.\u201d\n\n\n\nCNN said it was unable to independently verify whether or not the test in question had occurred.\n\n\n\nA formal justification for the sole-source contract to Pate Construction that DTRA released in February did not mention Iran or elaborate on the need for the new testing at ALT-SHIST, but stressed there was an urgent requirement critical to U.S. national security.\n\n\n\n\u201cThe services required are the immediate and mission-critical enabling services for a \u2018real-world\u2019 national security ordinance [sic; ordnance] test. This is not routine construction; it is the highly specialized remediation and operational preparation of a unique, subterranean test facility at White Sands Missile Range (WSMR),\u201d according to the justification document, which DTRA officials had approved on February 24. \u201cThe work is a critical path dependency for a live-fire test designed to validate classified capabilities against rapidly emerging threats.\u201d\n\n\n\n\u201cAs the incumbent contractor for over a decade, Pate Construction Co., Inc. possesses unparalleled and non-transferable tacit knowledge of this specific subterranean test facility. This is a unique Government structure with complex geological and security considerations, and Pate Construction Co., Inc.\u2019s direct, hands-on experience is a tangible asset that no other source possesses,\u201d the document adds. \u201cPate Construction Co., Inc. is the only contractor thatcurrently maintains a fully mobilized presence at WSMR with the specific heavy equipment and security-cleared operators required.\u201d\n\n\n\nCNN\u2018s piece says apparent work at ALT-SHIST was visible in satellite imagery of the site between mid-February and mid-March, but the outlet said it was unable to confirm whether or not this was related to the contract with Pate Construction.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWe reviewed satellite imagery showing work at a remote DTRA/STRATCOM test site that coincided with this contracting action, but we couldn\u2019t confirm its purpose.The Pentagon didn\u2019t respond to our questions regarding the test, and we couldn\u2019t independently confirm it occurred. pic.twitter.com/k8zyvqWy56\u2014 Davis Winkie (@davis_winkie) September 9, 2026\n\n\n\n\n\nALT-SHIST is an active test site, and any work observed there earlier this year could well have been linked to other projects. For instance, additional publicly available DTRA contracting documents offer details about planned work on a specific part of the ALT-SHIST site, called Tunnel 7, tracing back to last year, as part of a project nicknamed Millstone Willemite 6 (MW-6). \n\n\n\n\u201cThis task requires the construction contractor to repair and address the damage to Tunnel 7 caused by prior incidents, in accordance with government-provided designs, specifications, and other contract documents,\u201d according to one contracting document dated September 15, 2025. \u201cThe contractor will also be responsible for providing support during testing activities, as well as safing after each test and general support between tests. All tunnel construction must be completed by 15 June 2027.\u201d\n\n\n\n\u201cThe contractor shall repair a D-shape tunnel and overburden using the D-shape of 20 feet depth and width, inside the tunnel. The contractor shall remove and repair any damage to the ribs, crown, and invert to Tunnel 7,\u201d that same document continues. \u201cAfter the repair of Tunnel 7, the contractor shall provide general construction support to instrument the tunnel in preparation for testing and then safe the tunnel for re-entry post-testing.\u201d\n\n\n\nThe schedule for the MW-6-related work indicates that it is separate from what Pate Construction was hired to do at the site back in February. \n\n\n\nA view out into a mountainous part of the White Sands Missile Range complex. USACE \n\n\n\nALT-SHIST, which was first established in 1995, is also not the only site DTRA makes use of within WSMR. As its name indicates, it is an alternate to the original SHIST site, use of which began in 1993.\n\n\n\n\u201cThere was a small addition made to the SHIST site, but that area has been heavily used since 2007,\u201d according to an environmental impact study the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) completed in 2015. \u201cThe granite bedrock at these sites has been fractured and damaged by extensive testing. There are no existing granite areas adjacent to those sites where similar testing can be performed.\u201d\n\n\n\nA map showing the relative locations of SHIST and ALT-SHIST, as well as other test sites, at the northern end of the WSMR complex. USACE \n\n\n\nUSACE conducted that study in support of the establishment of a new test site at WSMR, simply called the Granite Test Site, to succeed the original SHIST. The Granite Test Site is now in use. There are many more sites within the range complex designed to simulate underground and otherwise hardened targets. This is also just one aspect of the wide array of testing that occurs on a daily basis at WSMR.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nHowever, the presence of large areas of undisturbed granite is a key factor here, as that is particularly relevant for testing weapons designed to penetrate into extremely deeply buried facilities. CNN\u2018s piece yesterday noted that Iran\u2019s Pickaxe Mountain site is built underneath a granite mountain.\n\n\n\n\u201cThe mountain in White Sands, they specifically picked mountainous areas that were solid rock, and they used state-of-the-art tunneling technology to make the kind of cavities in the mountain that you would put this kind of [Iranian nuclear] facility in,\u201d Gary Stradling, a retired scientist who previously worked for the Department of Energy\u2019s Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), told TWZ in an interview last year. \u201cI think that there is a lot of work that DOD has done in these kinds of facilities that is highly classified, and I couldn\u2019t talk to you about it. This is very sophisticated work. It is not casual, and it\u2019s not speculative. These are real experts who are doing the work. Careful, technical, quantitative work to be able to deliver this kind of war-fighting capability to the services.\u201d\n\n\n\nTWZ spoke to Stradling, who did work tied to earth-penetrating munitions at various points during his lengthy career, in the wake of Operation Midnight Hammer.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMe, standing at the edge of a MOP crater on a mountain top at White Sands Test Range, where detailed studies of massive earth penetrators were studied for effectiveness against deeply buried targets by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) \u2014formerly Defense Nuclear Agency.\u2026 pic.twitter.com/JYq1V2xO6q\u2014 Gary Stradling (@gary_stradling) June 24, 2025\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\tGBU-57 MOP test\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\nThe U.S. military notably did not strike Pickaxe Mountain, which is situated immediately to the southwest of Iran\u2019s nuclear facility at Natanz, during Operation Midnight Hammer. The site also went untouched by Israel during last year\u2019s 12 Day War. American and Israeli forces did not target it during major combat operations earlier this year, either. All of this underscores the targeting challenge the site presents, even for strikes using MOPs, which TWZ explored in detail earlier this year and that has continued to make it a point of particular discussion. \n\n\n\nA satellite image taken on August 21, 2026, showing activity around tunnel entrances at Iran\u2019s Pickaxe Mountain site. Satellite image \u00a92026 Vantor \n\n\n\nCNN\u2018s report yesterday was primarily focused on a new assessment of ongoing construction at Pickaxe Mountain from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think tank in Washington, D.C. \n\n\n\nSatellite \u201cimages reveal more road activity at Pickaxe Mountain in 2026 than at any point in the site\u2019s history,\u201d according to a report CSIS published yesterday. \u201cThere is a clear surge in construction activity in 2026 that corresponds to the raising and hardening of the portal accesses, paving of the internal road network, reinforcement around access areas, and the flattening and removal of excavation spoil.\u201d\n\n\n\n\u201cThis assessment can neither refute nor substantiate the Israeli intelligence claim that Iran moved centrifuges into Pickaxe Mountain,\u201d CSIS\u2019s report also noted. \u201cThe continuous construction, the absence of an increased internal security posture, and the lack of observed nonconstruction vehicles and equipment suggest the underground facility is not yet capable of enrichment work, if that is the intended purpose. Further analysis of daily activity would be needed to establish the site\u2019s pattern of life beyond its current construction footprint.\u201d\n\n\n\nA broader overview of Pickaxe Mountain, as well as Iran\u2019s nuclear site at Natanz, seen at the upper right corner, as of August 21, 2026. Satellite image \u00a92026 Vantor \n\n\n\nThis is in line with TWZ\u2018s own previous reporting on Pickaxe Mountain back in July, when there were already signs of growing activity following the establishment of a shaky ceasefire between the United States and Iran the preceding month. As we wrote at that time:\n\n\n\n\u201cAs with the strikes on Fordow, multiple bombs could be dropped on the same impact point to try to penetrate further down into Pickaxe Mountain. Whether there might be similar ventilation shafts or other weak points that could be exploited at Pickaxe Mountain is unknown. \u2026\u201d\n\n\n\nA graphic with details about the employment of MOPs on strikes at Fordow during Operation Midnight Hammer. DOD \n\n\n\n\u201cA strike \u2018right in the front door\u2019 on the tunnel entrances at Pickaxe Mountain would be another option to at least hamper access to the facility inside for a time. This could be combined with strikes aimed at sections of the tunnel networks that run deeper inside the facility, but that are still close enough to the surface to be reachable by available conventional munitions. For instance, MOPs may not be able to hit the main cavern areas, but they could possibly hit certain tunnels that might lead to them.\u201d\n\n\n\n\u201cEven a combined strike on entrances and shallow tunnels at Pickaxe Mountain could still present certain challenges. Firm intelligence on exactly where the tunnels snake under the mountain could be limited, making it difficult to select the best impact points. This is exactly why the U.S. military has been investing heavily in advanced, void-sensing fuzes for MOP and other bunker buster bombs for decades now. These fuzes detect when a munition has penetrated into a sufficiently large space, such as a room or tunnel in an underground facility, to help maximize damage. Fuzes that can effectively \u2018count\u2019 floors also help to ensure the munition has burrowed sufficiently deep before detonating.\u201d\n\n\n\n\u2026\n\n\n\n\u201c\u2026the U.S. military could conduct follow-on strikes on the entry points at Pickaxe Mountain to disrupt any attempt to regain access, as well.\u201d\n\n\n\n\u201cDestroying Pickaxe Mountain will be a scientific and targeting challenge,\u201d CSIS also noted in its report yesterday. \u201cIt is an underground fortress buttressed by granite. It is one of the only facilities in Iran\u2019s nuclear program that the United States has not yet struck. Structurally degrading Pickaxe Mountain requires more than just kinetic force \u2013 it takes actionable high-confidence intelligence and sophisticated mathematical modeling.\u201d\n\n\n\nWith all this in mind, it is not at all hard to imagine how new testing at ALT-SHIST, as well as other sites, would be essential for exploring additional options for striking Pickaxe Mountain and/or other deeply-buried targets in Iran using MOPs and/or other munitions. \n\n\n\nA US Air Force B-2 bomber drops a GBU-57/B MOP during a test. USAF \n\n\n\nIt\u2019s also worth noting here that GBU-57/Bs are understood to be in relatively short supply, though it is unknown how many of them are currently in inventory. Furthermore, the U.S. Air Force\u2019s B-2 Spirit bombers are currently the only aircraft certified to employ the huge MOPs operationally. There was a report in 2024 that prime contractor Boeing was working to expand its capacity to produce these bombs. A MOP successor, the GBU-76/B Next Generation Penetrator (NGP), is in development now, but prototyping work is expected to run through the end of Fiscal Year 2028.\n\n\n\nPresident Donald Trump certainly has raised the prospect of a strike on Pickaxe Mountain publicly on several occasions since July. He has also repeatedly said that the site is being persistently surveilled, particularly from space. \n\n\n\n\u201cThere\u2019s another place called Pickaxe Mountain, another nice place. We may have to give them a shot there, too, because someone said there was a little movement at the site,\u201d Trump said yesterday during a speech at a convention the Republican Party is hosting in Dallas, Texas, ahead of this year\u2019s midterm elections. \u201cWe don\u2019t need much. We see everything, you know, because of Space Force.\u201d \n\n\n\n\u201cWe may hit Pickaxe [Mountain] very soon,\u201d the President also said while speaking to reporters at the White House last Friday. \n\n\n\n\n\n\nTrump on Pickaxe Mountain: We may have to give them a shot there too. We see everything. We can the see tag on their coat. \u201cMuhammad Al-Fayed\u201d It\u2019s never Muhammad Jones. pic.twitter.com/UQm939OruL\u2014 Acyn (@Acyn) September 10, 2026\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWhether growing activity at Pickaxe Mountain finally prompts a U.S. strike at the site, either alone or as part of a larger operation, remains to be seen. If and when such a mission is launched, past and future testing at sites like ALT-SHIST in New Mexico will all but certainly have played an important part.\n\n\n\nContact the author: joe@twz.com" ], "output": "readability", "pwd": "/data/archive/1789121055.822781", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-09-11T13:44:22.524868+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "screenshot": [], "singlefile": [], "title": [ { "cmd": [ "curl", "--silent", "--location", "--compressed", "--max-time", "120", "--user-agent", "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) curl/curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "https://www.twz.com/news-features/work-at-underground-test-site-a-new-indicator-of-possible-strikes-on-irans-pickaxe-mountain-bunker" ], "cmd_version": "curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "end_ts": "2026-09-11T13:44:22.516990+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "Work At Underground Test Site A New Indicator Of Possible Strikes On Iran\u2019s Pickaxe Mountain Bunker", "pwd": "/data/archive/1789121055.822781", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-09-11T13:44:22.466445+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "wget": [ { "cmd": [ "wget", "--no-verbose", "--adjust-extension", "--convert-links", "--force-directories", "--backup-converted", "--span-hosts", "--no-parent", "-e", "robots=off", "--timeout=120", "--restrict-file-names=windows", "--warc-file=/data/archive/1789121055.822781/warc/1789134222", "--page-requisites", "--user-agent=Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) wget/GNU Wget 1.21.3", "--compression=auto", "https://www.twz.com/news-features/work-at-underground-test-site-a-new-indicator-of-possible-strikes-on-irans-pickaxe-mountain-bunker" ], "cmd_version": "GNU Wget 1.21.3", "end_ts": "2026-09-11T13:44:22.453583+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "www.twz.com/news-features/work-at-underground-test-site-a-new-indicator-of-possible-strikes-on-irans-pickaxe-mountain-bunker.html", "pwd": "/data/archive/1789121055.822781", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-09-11T13:43:42.439580+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ] }, "icons": null, "is_archived": true, "is_static": false, "latest": { "archive_org": null, "dom": null, "favicon": "favicon.ico", "git": null, "media": null, "pdf": null, "screenshot": null, "singlefile": null, "title": "Work At Underground Test Site A New Indicator Of Possible Strikes On Iran\u2019s Pickaxe Mountain Bunker", "warc": null, "wget": "www.twz.com/news-features/work-at-underground-test-site-a-new-indicator-of-possible-strikes-on-irans-pickaxe-mountain-bunker.html" }, "link_dir": "/data/archive/1789121055.822781", "newest_archive_date": "2026-09-11T13:44:25.140798+00:00", "num_failures": 0, "num_outputs": 6, "oldest_archive_date": "2026-09-11T13:43:41.415707+00:00", "path": "/news-features/work-at-underground-test-site-a-new-indicator-of-possible-strikes-on-irans-pickaxe-mountain-bunker", "schema": "Link", "scheme": "https", "snapshot_id": "7046710b-8259-4475-809c-1165f105b46d", "sources": [ "/data/sources/1789121055-import.txt" ], "tags": ",war-wiki,pool,escalation", "tags_str": "war-wiki,pool,escalation", "timestamp": "1789121055.822781", "title": "Work At Underground Test Site A New Indicator Of Possible Strikes On Iran\u2019s Pickaxe Mountain Bunker", "updated": "2026-09-11T13:43:41.415259+00:00", "updated_date": "2026-09-11 13:43", "url": "https://www.twz.com/news-features/work-at-underground-test-site-a-new-indicator-of-possible-strikes-on-irans-pickaxe-mountain-bunker" }