US to boost output of bombs designed to hit underground nuclear facilities

 

The 30,000-pound Massive Ordnance Penetrator, known as a bunker-buster, can be dropped only from a B-2 stealth bomber. It’s far bigger than the unguided 2,000-pound (900-kilogram), explosives that the Biden administration has postponed sending to Israel out of concern for civilian casualties in its war to defeat Hamas in Gaza.

 

The facility under construction at the 70-square-mile (181-square-kilometer) McAlester Army Ammunition Plant will significantly increase production as needed, the Air Force said in a statement. Officials at the facility told Bloomberg News during a March tour by General Charles Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that equates to complete as many as six or possibly eight bombs per month, up from two currently.

 

McAlester personnel fill bomb casings with explosives and load the warhead and fuse. Boeing Co. makes the bomb’s tail kit, which provides navigation.

 

The Army has described the new bomb assembly area at the Oklahoma plant as a “state-of-the-art facility that can support the production of 2,000-to-30,000-pound assets as well as providing flexible” explosive “mixing options needed for future requirements.” It’s scheduled to be completed by late spring to early fall, according to the service, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony scheduled for July 30.

 

A separate program to test a new “Large Penetrator Smart Fuse” for the bomb has been on hold because of “contract challenges that affected the ability to construct targets” to evaluate the improvement, the Pentagon test office said in its latest assessment of weapons programs.

 

The Massive Ordnance Penetrator “is a very important weapon” for US Central Command as well as Europe and the Indo-Pacific region, Frank McKenzie, a retired Marine Corps general who led Central Command, said in an email. It “ensures that we can target extremely well-protected underground facilities, wherever they are located.” He said that it “contributes significantly to our ability to achieve deterrence against nations such as Iran.”

 

Its importance is demonstrated by General Brown, who keeps a fragment from a test firing of the bomb in his Pentagon office.

 

Iran has the largest underground program in the Middle East “to conceal and protect critical military and civilian infrastructure throughout the country,” according to the Defense Intelligence Agency in a 2019 report on its military. Iran maintains that its extensive nuclear program is intended for peaceful uses.