U.S. Tests 15-Ton Bunker Buster
Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON -- In a tunnel under the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, the U.S. military this month conducted the first test detonation of a massive bomb designed to crack hardened bunkers.At the helm of the $30 million project to develop what the Defense Department calls the Massive Ordnance Penetrator is the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, a Pentagon branch devoted to countering threats from weapons of mass destruction.The 30,000-pound bomb could be deployed against the type of underground facilities in which Iran is engaged in uranium-enrichment work...Test drops from a B-52 long-range bomber are planned to start late in 2007. The Air Force is also proceeding with work to shoehorn the enormous bomb into the B-2 stealth bomber.
WASHINGTON -- In a tunnel under the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, the U.S. military this month conducted the first test detonation of a massive bomb designed to crack hardened bunkers.
At the helm of the $30 million project to develop what the Defense Department calls the Massive Ordnance Penetrator is the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, a Pentagon branch devoted to countering threats from weapons of mass destruction.
The 30,000-pound bomb could be deployed against the type of underground facilities in which Iran is engaged in uranium-enrichment work...
Test drops from a B-52 long-range bomber are planned to start late in 2007. The Air Force is also proceeding with work to shoehorn the enormous bomb into the B-2 stealth bomber.
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The Pentagon wants to upgrade its fleet of stealth bombers so that they can deliver 30-tonne, satellite-guided bombs. The planes would be based on the British Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia where hangars are being specially upgraded. These "bunker-buster" bombs are six times bigger than anything used by the air force and designed to destroy weapons of mass destruction facilities underground. Diego Garcia is also much closer to Iran than Missouri, where the bombers are based.
I think they write 30-tonne when it is 30,000 lbs (almost 15 ton). The biggest existing bunker-buster, the GBU-28 weighs 5,000 lbs, so six times this is 30,000 lbs .
However if the Iranians manage to sink an American aircraft carrier in retalitation, then everything is possible, including nukes. "Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet
Not that there's any real effective political power base in the US concerned with getting those 160K men and women out of there before the shit hits the fans. Fai de bèn a Bertrand, te lou rendra en cagant
And, as stated in several comments above, if the U.S. Navy takes severe damage, tactical nukes will be used to cover their retreat. Same goes for a drastic change in the security situation for the U.S. troops in Iraq. Then it won't be "first use", however much it will still be outrageous and, long term, self-defeating.
However, I don't think that we're quite there yet. It's possible that the Condi faction is running delaying tactics in a sense. Make it seem like they're applying pressure, which will take some amount of time to be deemed inadequate.
And here's an even greater leap into the hypothetical, based on a question: What does China use to pay Iran for oil? If it's U.S. dollars, which they have in great abundance, then blocking financial deals back into the Western financial world might create quite an obstacle to use of those dollars. I don't know about you, but, if I'm a farmer in South Africa, selling grain to Iran, I'm not particularly interested in dollars as payment nowadays. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are not likely to launder dollars for Iran, either. Maybe these new sanctions are actually based on RealPolitik calculations, rather than the adolescent dreams of our supreme Narcissist-in-chief. paul spencer
But it is also possible that they haven't got the right weapons yet... "Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet
