Subscribe to Common Dreams News Updates
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
US Boosts Spending on Bunker-Buster Bomb
The Pentagon is speeding up the deployment of an enormous bomb designed to destroy hidden weapons bunkers buried deep underground, one that would be the largest non-nuclear weapon in the U.S. arsenal.
Crews load the massive ordnance penetrator in a test in 2007 at White Sands Missile Range in southern New Mexico. The conventional bomb is designed to defeat deeply buried targets such as bunker and tunnel facilities. (Defense Threat Reduction Agency/Associated Press) The 13.6-tonne massive ordnance penetrator (MOP) carries about 2,400
kilograms of explosives and is so heavy only one can be carried aboard
a B-2 Stealth bomber.
The U.S. Department of Defence's decision to award the $51.9 million US contract to Boeing Co. earlier this month signals a renewed commitment to the weapon, which began testing in 2007 but had languished for two years because of budgetary issues. It is being designed jointly by Boeing and defence contractor Northrop Grumman.
The decision to provide further funding suggests the Obama administration is considering the weapon as part of a long-range backup plan if diplomatic efforts fail with countries believed to be pursuing nuclear weapons programs.
The U.S. is currently engaging in multilateral talks with both North Korea and Iran over the respective nuclear programs of the two countries. North Korea is a known nuclear weapons state and has exploded working devices underground, while Iran recently revealed a nuclear site deep inside a mountain near the holy city of Qom, though it says the facility is for energy purposes only.
Rhetoric toned down
The Obama administration has been careful not to take military action off the table against Iran, but has tried to distance itself from the tougher rhetoric that characterized the previous administration of George W. Bush.
Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Adm. Mike Mullen, for example, has said a strike is an option he doesn't want to use.
Pentagon officials acknowledge the new bomb is intended to blow up fortified sites such as those used in Iran and North Korea, but denied they had any targets in mind.
"I don't think anybody can divine potential targets," Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said. "This is just a capability that we think is necessary given the world we live in."
Kenneth Katzman, a specialist on Iran and the Middle East at the Congressional Research Service, said the weapon may act as a deterrent down the road.
"It adds to the calculus, let's say, of [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad and [North Korean leader] Kim Jong Il," Katzman said.
The precision-guided MOP bomb is designed to drill through earth and reinforced concrete before exploding. The bomb is about 10 times more powerful than the U.S. Massive Ordnance Air Blast — nicknamed the Mother Of All Bombs — the weapon it is designed to replace.
37 Comments so far
Show Allgenicon
How stupid, do the big brains at the pentagon think Iran or North Korea want to commit suicide?
Everybody in the world knows how big our nuclear arsenal is, and our willingness to use it should never be doubted, considering Hiroshima, and Nagasaki.
We already did the dirty deed.
Shouldn't that be deterrent enough?
The Pentagon is controlled by the politicians and the bankers. Without those two, it would just be another big building on a stretch of land.
No, its never enough for these maniacs. They've gone completely mad. No logic at all.
Scary stuff.
I think someone is overcompensating for something....hmmmm?
Big Bomb: small dick?
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats
This is NOT about deterrents. It is NOT about keeping us safe. It IS about money. Just follow the money on this project. Just one more in a long line of money laundering projects - taking money from the poor and the workers and transferring it to the wealthy weapons dealers. War has been the most profitable export of the USA for a long time.
That's true but you're only half way there. A large segment of the populace needs to be appeased lest a public rebellion ensue. An artificial "middle class" that remains will get some scraps of dough that might look like just enough to keep them in fool's paradise and possibly turn their minds against the poor. Yep, it's getting more crystal clear.
That's true, but I think it's also about deterrents, but in reverse. If Iran (or other countries with lots of resources the USA wants) has nuclear weapons, it will be harder for the USA to push them around and steal their resources.
more like "huge bombs necessary for the world we've created"
An epic tragedy playing out in slow-mo
Sioux Rose
VERN N: Exactly! Well-said!
I would love to see one of those MOP flying directly above the Pentagon just to watch the chicken hawks run for cover.
Here's just a few of our very wealthy elites in congress who are invested in weapons and defense and enemies of peace. (opensecrets.org).
"Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) and House Representative James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), two of Congress’s wealthiest members, were among the lawmakers who earned the most from their investments in defense contractors between 2004 and 2006, with Sensenbrenner making at least $3.2 million and Kerry reaping at least $2.6 million. The Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees both have members who are major investors in Defense companies. Chairs of other defense-related committees are similarly invested. Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, had at least $51,000 invested in defense companies in 2006. Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.), who heads the House Foreign Affairs Committee, had at least $30,000 invested in defense companies".
Any questions who the real terrorist are?
To your list of war profiteers you need to add the name Sen. Diane Feinstein who is engorging herself on military procurement contracts via her husband, Richard Blum.
Justin Raimundo at Anti-war.com has the skinny:
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2009/10/11/dianne-feinstein-war-profiteer/
There's only one consolation. It's not a nuke.
Great eze, lets call it what it is a: "Koreanian Son of a Bast*ard of all Bombs". peace
ez, I would not be surprised that after dropping a few of these MOPs / MOABs and reporting in the corporatist MSM media that they have the explosive force of up to 15 tons of TNT, that the Pentagon propaganda war-gods might start using W-54 mini-nuke warheads (dialed down to the minimum 10 tons of TNT) and try to say that, "Well, yes, technically its a nuclear warhead, but its less powerful than the MOP/MOABs that we've been using in Iran --- and thus its really no big deal --- if fact, we're being kinder and gentler on them".
Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine
IMAGINE a USA led by
NAOMI KLEIN, SIOUXROSE, JENNIFER BEDINGTON, SHEILA BAIR, etc.?
no hillary or condi wanna be MEN Gunslingers need apply....
John Lennon's song "Imagine" would come true for the world, quicker than you can say MOMMY.
I do respect the people you mention here.
But your assumption that women would somehow find peace where men would not is dead wrong.
Would Hilary Clinton have got us out of Iraq? She was pretty keen to cast her vote to go to war and unlike Bush, SHE was smart enough to know better!
Tsipi Livni (sp) in Israel...the killing would continue apace.
Margaret Thatcher...yea...true champion of peace.
The people you are talking about are not distinguished by their sex, but by their views and respect for life and peace. And this is a respect that can, believe it or not, cross genders.
Sioux Rose
PHYSICS: I think there IS a different sensibility based on gender. How much is socialized, the little girl gets the doll to learn to nurture so that one day she will act as a caring mother, the little boy gets the toy soldier, that one day he will grow up and wear a uniform and find cause in firing a gun... how much is biological, no one can say.
I recognize that every human being is a galaxy of factors, that quite literally come into play. Every man has the imprint of Venus, the capacity to care, somewhere within his being, soul, psyche, heart, mind... and every female has an inner Mars, the aspect that will speak up for herself, fight off offenders where possible, experience the thrust of ego and the call of libido.
Just as the majority of minorities that make it into high office EMULATE the rules of their elite "masters," most women who "excel" in the pre-existing patriarchal paradigm must also show homage to rules consistent with its ethos, however bankrupt.
Women like Mary Madalin may have never owned a strong Venus, nor any capacity to care for other and experience genuine empathy. Men like Jimmy Carter, in contrast, have that aspect WELL developed.
I agree that we cannot make entire determinations on the basis of gender, but the basic rules of patriarchy favor aggression over diplomacy, self-interest over community concerns, naked profit over sharing bounty, etc.
Most people become conditioned by the societies in which they find themselves. Only a small percentage has the inner strength to stand apart and/or fly over the cuckoo's nest. Therefore, so long as the cultural mores favor the macho warrior and the state acting as aggressor, persons who find such behavior natural tend to see their careers most vitally advanced.
I could go much further into this argument, but I'll leave it here. Many in this forum have already read my thoughts on this subject.
Sioux Rose
Hi, TEDDY: Thanks for the "vote."
One reads about this travesty of waste, this agent of death, like a bad omen, already carrying the names of the next generation of those to be granted unintended victim status, the legion of the collaterally damaged.
The nauseating paradox revealed by the juxtapositioning of discussions on money NOT made available for health services (against statistics suggesting upwards of 45,000 a year dying for lack of said access), while a filthy satanic invention such as this is financed unapologetically? Any nation that demonstrates THESE priorities to the world is certainly NOT in league to even step up to the plate of contenders in line for the Nobel Peace Prize.
I think of the state of the world's oceans, the nuclear detritus (and/or DU) dumped there killing beings low on the food chain. I ache for the burning forests, the bleached coral reefs, the melting tundra, the species that fall one by one to the legion of the extinct, the crying mothers holding dead babies, the wives nursing soldiers returned as half the men they might have been... all this a testament to, and allegiance for Mars, god of war, promise keeper of death and destruction. This weapon is tribute to him, and the ILLUSION of a big bang as cause for Creation.
Travesty? Tragedy? Hell-fire missiles made manifest as a dark fate to too many. There ARE no words to describe what broken minds have put their energy into creating and nurturing in this new millenium. IF it were not for immersion in the spring waters, I think my soul would implode from all this BAD and getting worse news... daily infusions of what is worthy of despair. Still, out of darkness eventually comes light. And that's where patience (I have little) counts as a necessity. How can thinking men/women think so wrongly, to put their efforts into the likes of this latest toy of Hades?
This would be "the largest non-nuclear weapon in the Pentagons arsenal".What a bunch of prevaricating lies this "Doublespeak" represents.If the target of these bombs is nuclear,these are Nuclear Weapons by Proxy! Just as insidious as Depleted Uranium or any other weapon that spreads atomic radiation and contamination which maims and kills for thousands of years.
US military spending ,spending your change ,destroying your hope! peace
Swell, I'll avoid things built by Boeing, like airplanes, from now on.
Developed, no less, under the administration of the Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Barack Obama.
Irony, anyone?
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross."
Sinclair Lewis, "It Cant Happen Here", 1935
Oh this is rich!
And just how are they going to find these hidden underground facilities anyway?
Apparently when the politicizing of the Intelligence analysis arm of the CIA became all to clear in the run-up and aftermath of the Iraq war we now have such confidence in our intelligence gathering capability that we will be able to drop this bastard with any accuracy?
If you guys are thinking what I am thinking that's not this bomb's purpose. It's a conventional mini-nuke really. It's true use and glory will be against entire civilian populations in densly packed cities where we cannot be bothered to fix the messes we ourselves create.
Indeed, when we sell 5 of these to Israel I suspect Gaza's days can be counted on one hand.
This bomb seems to be necessary given the world we live in, but shouldn't the guy have said: the world we, especially the US, created? The only industry that hasn't been outsourced so far is the armament making one. Give Obama the Nobel prize for economics for that one, people on the committee. Soon, it will be the only viable source of income for the US, as is oil for the Arabs.
Can someone point me to the link that says exactly by what factor the USA outspends the entire rest of the world militarily?
I thought it was by some thing like a factor of 5.
Given this, my skepticism about the 'need' for such massive over-kill is extreme.
Siouxrose October 13th, 2009 4:43 pm
Your mini compilation of disturbing facts is to Me like the 'tippiest' tip of an Iceberg as Big as the Big Island. 14 km of lies and deceit, wrapped in National Security and 'Democracy'.
You got very close to where My Mindset is right now. When You look at the whole complete list of crimes against humanity, the war this country is leading against the rest of the world and foremost against common sense and reason, is only a dim aspect of a development on the planet that has left out humans watching and standing idling by a global firestorm of wars, disease and Mother Earth's disciplinary action against Homo Sapiens. Whereas I have stripped Homo Sapiens of the Sapiens. Somebody show Me the 'Sapiens' in the attempt to saw off the branch Humankind is sitting on.
This is My new favorite:
The New 500 HP Porsche Panamera - Climate Change Edition.
We need Bombs not food, clothes and shelter.
As I Am seriously depressed nowadays about the lies and idiocies that are perpetrated and sold to us as improvements and necessities, the whole place may as well blow up to get over with it for once and for all. How many people are there who really care?
Basically for the first time in My Life I Am really speechless and clueless. No more words come to My mind to describe what I feel about the betrayal of a few wealthy maggots on the expense of all.
It is too much to comprehend. Just watch TV and You know what I Am talking about.
Where I live right now there are many people who voice their intend to swim out into the ocean. One Way to get over with it. Maybe if there is a large enough group to swim out to no longer partake in this sick to the marrow bone society, people will wake up.
I know, it was just an idea.
Believe That You Can Change Your Beliefs.
Fellow progressives: Do you ever feel like you are trapped in an insane asylum with no way out?
Yes and the inmates are running things... Currently looking for that window to bust through like Chief from "One flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"
vernn: When you find that window please let me know!
I managed to escape in 1997. At the time I thought I was leaving "The Greatest Nation on Earth".
What I discovered. To my complete surprise. Was that some kinds of socialism actually works. That a mixed economy is far more 'civilized' than anything I grew up with.
But the worst thing I discovered was just how much I had been lied to.
I found out that American was a good place to live, but certainly not 'great', nor the 'best' in most respects. This lie kind of soured me, but I was still a patriot and loyal to the land of my birth...and then the Neo-Cons and the Age of Stupidity came to the fore....
I am so glad I escaped.
"Bunker-Buster" is a misnomer...it should be called a "budget buster", not just because of it's hefty size and price tag, but also because it needs to be delivered by another overpriced piece of machinery, the B-2 Stealth bomber. How many of those wicked, demonic flying machines are stashed away or in the pipeline?
With the budget bleeding red ink, people dying from inadequate, affordable health care and home foreclosures tossing people into the streets, how the hell can anyone and that includes the Nobel Peace Prize recipient, our president, defense contractors, their stock holders, Congressional leaders, et al, even begin to appear in public without shame smeared all over their faces?
Unfortunately, Congress just approved another hefty budget for the Pentagon. How can we stop this madness? If only we could stop the funding. Who can be trusted to lead this world away from the path to Armageddon? or is there still time to wake up from the collective nightmare we all seem to share?
Let's call it "The Noble."
...my bomb is bigger than your bomb.
This country really does deserve it's destiny.
Maybe they'll call it the O-BOMB-A in "Honour" of the Nobel Peace Prize winning hypocrite.
I beg to differ ... this is insane to say this is the largest non-nuclear weapon in the U.S. arsenal. My understanding is that all of these bombs leave behind very high levels of D U. These weapons should be classified as weapons of mass destruction.
redbird
This an article discussing the use of Bunker Busters, whether nuclear or non-nuke. As mentioned above, and discussed in the article, hitting a nuclear site with a conventional weapon can cause as much fallout and devastation as using nukes.
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=2093
Some of the links in the article have died, but many still work.
THIS INSANITY MUST STOP!
I am a nuclear veteran (Operation Redwing, Bikini Atoll, 1956) and know whereof I speak. In re-reading the article, I see that, to update it, please substitute our new "Prince of Peace" wherever you see "der Bush." The names change, but the policies go on.
Combine this with a load of MOABs (the one the US Air Force detonated over a Florida swamp a few years back) and who need nukes?
These 'non-nuclear' weapons are getting so powerful that in using one, it's blast signature could be mistaken for a true nuclear weapon, and touch off the whole nuclear war nightmare we have thus far narrowly avoided.
It is time to bring to and end this destructive and insane race to the bottom.
If that means the end of the American Empire, and the collapse of the US as a nation, so be it.