The Pentagon won congressional approval to shift $81.6 million in funds improve the military’s largest conventional weapon, the 30,000-pound Boeing Co. 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.
“This is a very hard target, and the international community believes that if Iran were to attempt a nuclear breakout, it would be conducted at this site,” Katzman said of the enrichment activity, which could be used to produce enough material for a nuclear device. Iran says its nuclear program is for civilian uses.
The Pentagon request to upgrade the bomb was submitted 11 days after the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed the enrichment activity. The location at Qom is 90 meters (295 feet) under rock, said David Albright, founder and president of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington.
