Bunker-Buster Bomb Upgrades Effective, Tester Finds

Upgrades that let the U.S. military’s most powerful precision-guided bomb hit more deeply buried targets have been successful, according to the Pentagon’s top weapons tester.

The Air Force in May and July dropped the 30,000-pound Massive Ordnance Penetrator made by Boeing Co. (BA) from B-2 stealth bombers on targets to evaluate an upgrade called the Enhanced Threat Modification.

Based on those exercises, the penetrator, called a bunker-buster, is “capable of effectively” attacking “selected hardened, deeply-buried targets,” Michael Gilmore, director of operational test and evaluation, said in his annual report on major weapons released today.

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