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U.S. stockpiles bunker-buster bombs in case Iran nuclear talks fail
[LATimes] As diplomats rush to reach an agreement to curb Iran's nuclear program, the U.S. military is stockpiling conventional bombs so powerful that strategists say they could cripple Tehran's most heavily fortified nuclear complexes, including one deep underground.The bunker-busting bombs are America's most destructive munitions short of atomic weapons. At 15 tons, each is 5 tons heavier than any other bomb in the U.S. arsenal. In development for more than a decade, the latest iteration of the MOP -- massive ordnance penetrator -- was successfully tested on a deeply buried target this year at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The test followed upgrades to the bomb's guidance system and electronics to stop jammers from sending it off course. U.S. officials say the huge bombs, which have never been used in combat, are a crucial element in the White House deterrent strategy and contingency planning should diplomacy go awry and Iran seek to develop a nuclear bomb. Obama has made it clear that he has no desire to order an attack, warning that U.S. Arclight "A military solution will not fix it," Obama told Israeli TV on June 1. An attack "would temporarily slow down an Iranian nuclear program, but it will not eliminate it." Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter, speaking to news hounds Thursday at the Pentagon, sought to downplay the likelihood or the utility of an attack. He said no plan under consideration, including use of the bunker-busters, could deliver a permanent knockout blow to Iran's nuclear infrastructure and enrichment plants. A military strike of that kind is a setback, but it doesn't prevent the reconstitution over time," he said. "And that basically has been the case as long as we've had those instruments and those plans, and I don't think there's anything substantially changed since then." U.S. officials have publicized the new bomb partly to rattle the Iranians. Some Pentagon officials warned not to underestimate U.S. military capabilities even if the bunker-busters can't eliminate Iran's nuclear program. Iran's nuclear program has already been attacked through covert digital action. In 2010, the U.S. and Israel reportedly slipped a destructive computer worm called Stuxnet into Iranian computer systems controlling the fast-spinning centrifuges that enrich uranium. The cyberattack destroyed centrifuges and delayed enrichment, but Tehran soon recovered, according to the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations ...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly... nuclear watchdog agency. Stuxnet did not lead to overt Iranian retaliation. U.S. "It would create huge problems," said Michael E. O'Hanlon, a military analyst at the Brookings Institution. "That said, it's hard to rule out if talks fail." Posted by: trailing wife 2015-07-06 |
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