(Bloomberg) -- U.S. Central Command has asked Congress to authorize and appropriate $35 million more than requested in the White House's latest budget proposal to replace 10 of America's most powerful non-nuclear weapons after supplies were depleted during tests.
The 30,000-pound (13,600 kilogram) GBU-57 “bunker buster” -- known officially as a Massive Ordnance Penetrator -- is built by Boeing Co. and could be used to strike deeply buried or other difficult targets, including potential underground nuclear facilities in places such as North Korea or Iran.
In a March 25 letter to the House Armed Services Committee, General Frank McKenzie -- who led American forces in the Mideast until his retirement Friday -- called the $35 million his top “unfunded request” that didn't make it into President Joe Biden's proposed defense budget.
The different and lighter 21,600-pound Massive Ordnance Air Blast -- known as the Mother of All Bombs -- that explodes above ground was used in April 2017 against Islamic State positions in Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar province.
Stockpiles of the Massive Ordnance Penetrator have diminished more recently because of testing done at the U.S. military's White Sands, New Mexico, test range.
McKenzie said in his letter that he'd like to see replacements funded because the U.S. doesn't now have the capability of hitting about “45% of the current worldwide strategic hard and deeply buried targets.”
Military officials have said that the explosion of a GBU-57 feels like a nuclear blast, and a test of the bomb in 2003 produced a mushroom cloud visible 20 miles (32 kilometers) away.
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