DOD official: New bomb has 'important capability'

[The Straight Story]

DOD official: New bomb has 'important capability'

Posted 10/9/2009 Updated 10/9/2009 Email story Print story



by Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service

10/9/2009 - WASHINGTON (AFNS) -- Defense Department officials here are developing an advanced "bunker-buster" bomb that should be ready for deployment this summer, senior Pentagon officials said Oct. 8 here.

The department has been "working on technology that allows us to get at deeply buried, hardened targets" since 2004, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters.

Development of the bomb has taken longer than originally envisioned because of variables in the budget process, Mr. Whitman said, adding that it is now back "on track."

Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters that the department is developing a massive penetrator bomb designed to pulverize underground facilities that may store weapons of mass destruction and related systems.

At a hefty 30,000 pounds, the new penetrator bomb weighs almost 4 tons more than the U.S. military's former heavyweight champion, the nearly 22,000-pound massive ordnance air blast conventional bomb, known by the acronym MOAB.

The massive penetrator bomb will be in a class by itself and represents a unique capability, Mr. Whitman said.

"We don't have any other 30,000-pound bombs," he said.

The late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had used underground facilities to hide and protect some of his military technology, Mr. Whitman pointed out to reporters. Some other countries, he said, have emulated this technique.

The existence of hardened, underground military facilities "is not a new phenomena, but it is a growing one," Mr. Whitman said.

Therefore, he said, the department decided to develop a new penetrator bomb, which should be ready by next summer.

Although there was no "urgent" reason to develop the new bomb, defense planners recognized the need to obtain it, Mr. Whitman said.

Such a weapon is "an important capability to have," he said.

http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123172092

[BeHereNow]

1. ENOUGH of this bomb making crap!

These people are truly insane.
I am FURIOUS that my tax dollars pay for THEIR insanity.
BHN

[tridim]

2. Can we please cut defense spending now.

This makes me ill.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

3. "massive penetrator bomb"... no comment.

[Oregone]

5. It putting a hole into the moon would probably not be dubbed anticlimatic

Like the last moon bombing

[Taverner]

4. Hey! We gotta pop those cherries! Penetrate those virgin mountains...

:sarcasm:

[thunder rising]

6. "underground facilities to hide and protect some of his military technology"..like that palatial

spider hole? What ever happened to those imagined palatial bunkers with hot and cold running maids that Saddam had? Where were the underground highways?

Pentagon is forever fighting the last war with the last imagined obstacles to overcome.

[HereSince1628]

8. Yes, all of the supposed underground facilities turned out to be questionable.

One of them was a bomb shelter in which many women and children died when we attacked it with heavy conventional bombs.

When the truth is blurred in order to promote a weapon, it is time for Congress to pull the funding of that weapon.

The careers of the bastards over in the Pentagon are made during periods of combat, not peace. The defense industry's profits are made in times of weapon use. Implementing war is as much a natural desire for those wackos as it was for ancient romans and relatively modern heros like Patton.

[kenny blankenship]

7. More capable tools for the Commander In PEACE!

Couldn't be better timing for this announcement. Thank you, TODT!

[ThomWV]

9. Build a bigger bomb, dig a deeper bunker, build a bigger bomb, dig a deeper bunker

and these idiots don't see the trend.

[kestrel91316]

10. Anybody else find the idea of DOD issuing this press release TODAY

to be a tad inappropriate, lol????

Nobel PEACE Prize and all.......

Just sayin'.......

[The Straight Story]

14. It is a peace bringing bomb ya know

:rofl:

[Torn_Scorned_Ignored]

11. Mother of All Bombs

20 stories long.

This F-er will bury itself 200 feet in the earth and R U M B L E.

Considering the part of the world they probably would use it for I predict a chain reaction of MASSIVE EARTHQUAKES.


Sorry, no link. I read about this MOAB a few weeks ago where the freepers gather.

[liberaltrucker]

12. So, what's the point?

We already have tactical nukes that'll do the same thing.

If used on a "deeply buried, hardened target", little if any radiation
would be released. So, again, what's the point?

:banghead:

[The Straight Story]

15. Bomb makers need to make a living to ya know

:)

[DireStrike]

16. But it is a nuke. Capital N U K E.

It'd be nice if we didn't start down that slippery slope.

[midnight armadillo]

17. Wrong on radiation

A nuke used in such a fashion would create a tremendous amount of radioactive fallout. Read details on one such proposed weapon here.

[gratuitous]

13. Another very expensive solution in search of a problem

But our personnel in Afghanistan don't have socks. But perish the thought that a re-prioritization of military spending might be in order; you're a callous prick if you don't keep enabling this dysfunctional behavior. And you hate the troops. And America. And apple pie.

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

18. You drop 15 tons and whatdaya get

another day older and deeper in debt.