Citing an "urgent operational need," the Pentagon has asked Congress for funds to modify B-2 stealth bombers to deliver an experimental 30,000 pound, satellite-guided bunker busting bomb, officials said Wednesday.
Known as the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, the air force is seeking nearly 88 million dollars to complete development of the bomb and modify B-2 bombers so that they can deliver it, an air force spokeswoman said.
"This program is an effort to satisfy an urgent operational need for the massive ordnance penetrator, a 30,000 pound (13,608 kilograms) GPS guided penetrator weapon on B-2 for hard and deeply buried" targets, the air force's request budget said.
The item was buried in a 42.3 billion dollar request for war on terror funding submitted by the administration last week, raising suspicions about the rush to field what would be the largest satellite guided conventional bomb in the US arsenal.
"It's a capability that has some relation to the capabilities in the Centcom AOR," a senior defense official said, referring to the US Central Command's area of responsibility.
"You have buried targets, particularly in Afghanistan, that you are concerned about," the official told reporters last week.
The bomb is currently under development by Boeing under a "technology demonstrator" contract with the Defense Threat Reduction Agency that concludes this fiscal year.
A first test was conducted in March at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico using a "statically emplaced conventional weapon within a DTRA tunnel," according to the agency.
Tests from a B-52 bomber are planned for next month and July 2008, the agency said in fact sheet on the bomb.
"The MOP is approximately 20.5 feet (6.2 meters) long, with a 31.5-inch (80 centimeters) diameter and a total weight of slightly less than 30,000 pounds," the agency said.
"The weapon will carry over 5,300 pounds (2,404 kilograms) of explosive material and will deliver more than 10 times the explosive power of its predecessor, the BLU-109," it said.
It has been designed to be carried inside B-52 and B-2 Stealth bombers.
The funding request includes 83.5 million dollars to continue development of the weapon and 4.2 million dollars to modify the B-2s so that they can carry it, an air force spokeswoman said.
