Grab your butts and hang on.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Funding For Bunker Busters May Signal Iran Attack
Cross-posted on Think Progress
There have been many signs that the Bush administration is preparing to attack Iran, and not all come from the mouth of Dick Cheney. From CQ;
Some Democrats are worried that President Bush?’s funding request to enable B-2 ?“stealth?” bombers to carry a new 30,000-pound ?“bunker buster?” bomb is a sign of plans for an attack on Iran.
Buried in the $196.4 billion supplemental war spending proposal that Bush submitted to Congress on Oct. 22 is a request for $88 million to modify B-2 bombers so they can drop a Massive Ordnance Penetrator, or MOP, a conventional bomb still in development that is the most powerful weapon designed to destroy targets deep underground.
The plans for this have been underway for quite a while;
The MOP is being developed in three phases. Boeing successfully completed Phase I, Concept Refinement, of the MOP technology demonstration in May 2005. Phase II started in June 2005 and included detailed design and preliminary testing as well as long lead items for Phase III, Weapon Performance Demonstration. During Phase III, research and development flight tests from a B-52 aircraft are planned between Nov. 2007 and July 2008. These tests are designed to measure the penetration and lethality performance of the MOP weapon on bunker and tunnel targets constructed at DTRA?’s WMD National Testbeds located at the White Sands Missile Range, N.M.
It's also clear that this ordinance is designed specifically for Iranian targets such as their Natanz nuclear facility. Especially when former general officers say just that;
The U.S. has a 14-ton super bomb more destructive than the vacuum bomb just tested by Russia, a U.S. general said Wednesday.
The statement was made by retired Lt. General McInerney, chairman of the Iran Policy Committee, and former Assistant Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force.
McInerney said the U.S. has ''a new massive ordnance penetrator that's 30,000 pounds, that really penetrates ... Ahmadinejad has nothing in Iran that we can't penetrate.''
Though I do think the best way to handle Iran's nuclear ambitions is through careful diplomacy and negotiation, it does help to have a stick handy in case the carrots aren't appetizing. In this case, the stick is a double-barreled shotgun, but no one ever accused this administration of subtlety.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Funding For Bunker Busters May Signal Iran Attack
Cross-posted on Think Progress
There have been many signs that the Bush administration is preparing to attack Iran, and not all come from the mouth of Dick Cheney. From CQ;
Some Democrats are worried that President Bush?’s funding request to enable B-2 ?“stealth?” bombers to carry a new 30,000-pound ?“bunker buster?” bomb is a sign of plans for an attack on Iran.
Buried in the $196.4 billion supplemental war spending proposal that Bush submitted to Congress on Oct. 22 is a request for $88 million to modify B-2 bombers so they can drop a Massive Ordnance Penetrator, or MOP, a conventional bomb still in development that is the most powerful weapon designed to destroy targets deep underground.
The plans for this have been underway for quite a while;
The MOP is being developed in three phases. Boeing successfully completed Phase I, Concept Refinement, of the MOP technology demonstration in May 2005. Phase II started in June 2005 and included detailed design and preliminary testing as well as long lead items for Phase III, Weapon Performance Demonstration. During Phase III, research and development flight tests from a B-52 aircraft are planned between Nov. 2007 and July 2008. These tests are designed to measure the penetration and lethality performance of the MOP weapon on bunker and tunnel targets constructed at DTRA?’s WMD National Testbeds located at the White Sands Missile Range, N.M.
It's also clear that this ordinance is designed specifically for Iranian targets such as their Natanz nuclear facility. Especially when former general officers say just that;
The U.S. has a 14-ton super bomb more destructive than the vacuum bomb just tested by Russia, a U.S. general said Wednesday.
The statement was made by retired Lt. General McInerney, chairman of the Iran Policy Committee, and former Assistant Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force.
McInerney said the U.S. has ''a new massive ordnance penetrator that's 30,000 pounds, that really penetrates ... Ahmadinejad has nothing in Iran that we can't penetrate.''
Though I do think the best way to handle Iran's nuclear ambitions is through careful diplomacy and negotiation, it does help to have a stick handy in case the carrots aren't appetizing. In this case, the stick is a double-barreled shotgun, but no one ever accused this administration of subtlety.
