Bunker-Buster Bomb Improvements Sought By Pentagon Win Approval

bunker buster bombs (Photo credit: poniblog)By Tony Capaccio - Bloomberg

The Pentagon won congressional approval to shift $81.6 million in funds to improve the military’s largest conventional weapon, the 30,000-pound Boeing Co. (BA) Massive Ordnance Penetrator, known as the bunker-buster bomb.

The Senate defense appropriations subcommittee on Feb. 7 became the fourth and final defense panel to approve the shift from programs deemed less important, Pentagon spokeswoman Lieutenant Colonel Elizabeth Robbins said today in an e-mail. ‘It was an urgent request,” Robbins said without elaboration.

The move to improve the bomb shortly after the Air Force took delivery may have been triggered by Iran’s announcement Jan. 9 that it would begin uranium enrichment at the Fordow facility near Qom that’s tunneled into mountains, said Kenneth Katzman, a Middle East military analyst for the non-partisan Congressional Research Service. *****CONTINUE READING*****