The Defense Department's new Iraq war funding request proposes upgrading the B-2 stealth bomber to carry the military's largest satellite-guided bomb capable of penetrating deeply buried bunkers.
The Pentagon's proposal is one sentence in the measure seeking $45.9 billion more for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that President Bush gave to Congress Monday. The extra money would be on top of $150.5 billion in previously requested war spending.
The new 30,000-pound bomb is six times bigger than the Air Force's current 5,000-pound bunker-buster. Chicago-based Boeing is developing the bomb for the Pentagon agency that researches technology to counter weapons of mass destruction. The bomb was first successfully detonated in March.
The B-2 is the only U.S. bomber capable of penetrating an adversary's most dangerous air defenses such as those believed in use by North Korea and Iran. The B-2 bombed targets in the early days of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.
The new 20.5-foot-long Massive Ordnance Penetrator carries more than 5,300 pounds of explosives and is guided by Global Positioning Satellites, according to a description on the Web site of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.
A Pentagon official, speaking on condition of anonymity today at a briefing for reporters, said the weapon has potential uses in Afghanistan to attack caves and other underground facilities used by the Taliban [emphasis added]. Iran has at least two suspected subterranean nuclear facilities and other command-and-control sites not connected to the nuclear program...
