AMERICA鈥橲 Senate Armed Services Committee last week gave qualified approval for the development of the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator, a nuclear weapon for destroying deep underground bunkers and other hardened targets (快猫短视频, 9 November, p 6). But final funding for research into the RNEP will not be granted until the newly elected House of Representatives and Senate reconvene in January.
The approval, a measure within the National Defense Authorization Act for 2003, calls on Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to detail by February the precise military objectives of the nuclear weapon 鈥� and to outline any feasible conventional alternatives. Convincing the committee that conventional weapons can do the job is seen by objectors as the last hope for getting the programme cancelled. 鈥淚t can still be stopped,鈥� says a spokesman for Ed Markey, a Democrat opposed to the weapon鈥檚 development.
The military鈥檚 case for developing the RNEP rests on the assumption that current weapons can only break through about 8 metres of rock. Yet 快猫短视频 has learned that secret research programmes under way may greatly extend this capability 鈥� rendering the RNEP redundant.
Advertisement
Advanced guidance systems make it possible to repeatedly hit the same spot with huge conventional bombs, creating a deeper crater each time. Another approach is a burrowing bomb dubbed 鈥淒eep Digger鈥�. This uses a multi-barrelled automatic cannon that fires special projectiles that chew rapidly through earth, rock or concrete, creating a tunnel to the required depth.
But opponents of the RNEP fear that military enthusiasm for the weapon could mean that any conventional alternatives won鈥檛 get a fair hearing.