Pentagon plans speeding up ‘bunker buster’ bomb

“The department has asked for reprogramming of about USD 68 million to start production for some of these in 2009,” Whitman said yesterday.

“This will help it accelerate some if it’s approved.”

The weapon,weighing in at 13,600 kilogrammes and carrying 2,400 kilogrammes of explosives,would be delivered by the radar-evading B-2 Stealth bomber.

The MOP is seen as a potential weapon against nuclear facilities in Iran and North Korea that are mostly buried underground.

Washington has demanded that both countries abandon their nuclear programmes and has refused to rule out possible military action.

Whitman declined to say why the military wanted to accelerate production or whether the move was designed to pile pressure on Iran.

He said the Pentagon since 2004 had been looking at developing weapons “that would allow us to go after more hardened,more deeply buried targets.”