The Pentagon is acknowledging it has moved up the date for deploymentof a massive bomb capable of penetrating deeply buried enemyfacilities. Many observers believe the weapon is designed for apossible attack on Iranian facilities, but officials will not make thatconnection.
It isofficially called the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, but it's knowninformally as a new and larger type of Bunker Buster. It weighs morethan 13 metric tons - so heavy that only one can be carried on themost capable U.S. bomber aircraft. The Defense Department will notconfirm its capabilities, but analysts believe it is designed topenetrate up to 60 meters of earth, or a thick layer of concrete,before exploding.
The bomb has been under development forseveral years. Its deployment was delayed due to budget constraintsand because officials believed it was not needed urgently. ButPentagon Spokesman Bryan Whitman says that assessment changed earlierthis year.
"The threats have been developing over the years," hesaid. "There are, without getting into any intelligence, there arecountries that have used technologies to go further under ground and totake those facilities and make them hardened. This is not a newphenomenon, but it is a growing one."
The Pentagon gotpermission from the congress to redirect $52 million to move up thedeployment date of the new bunker buster. Whitman says the first ofthe bombs should be ready by the middle of next year. He notes thatthe United States has other weapons capable of penetrating hardenedfacilities, but he says the technology in the Massive OrdnancePenetrator takes the capability to a new level.
"If you lookat the spectrum of munitions, certain munitions have greaterpenetrating capability than others," said Whitman. "But the MassiveOrdnance Penetrator is a bomb that, for the most part, I would put in aclass by itself."
Whitman would not discuss the weapon'spossible use against any specific country. Many analysts believe it isdesigned particularly for North Korea and Iran. Last month, U.S.officials revealed the existence of an Iranian nuclear facility insidea mountain, which they have known about for three years. And U.S.Defense Secretary Robert Gates hinted this week Iran could have othersuch installations.
Again without reference to any specificcountry, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell spoke about the bunkerbuster bomb on Wednesday.
"The reality is that the world welive in is one in which there are people who seek to build weapons ofmass destruction, and they seek to do so in a clandestine fashion," hesaid. "And this has been a capability that we have long believed wasmissing from our quiver, our arsenal, and we wanted to make sure wefilled in that gap."
Morrell said the new weapon provides a capability that defense department officials believe is necessary in today's world.