The United States may use a new 13,600-kilogram bunker-buster bomb against Iran, DefenseNews.com reported on Thursday quoting U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Herbert Carlisle as saying.
"The massive ordnance penetrator is a great weapon. We are continuing to improve that. It has great capability now and we are continuing to make it better,” Carlisle said on Thursday. “It is part of our arsenal and it will be a potential if we need it in that kind of scenario.”
Speaking at the conference on the U.S. defense programs, Carlisle said that the bomb was "a great weapon," specially designed to attack countries like Iran which have their nuclear facilities buried underground.
According to Carlisle, the 13,600-kilogram weapon is able to smash through a 200-feet (65 meters) concrete bunker.
Iran’s ongoing development of its nuclear program has sparked calls for military strikes from the United States and Israel prompting diplomatic means of solving the nuclear dispute were running out.
In an interview with National Journal, U.S. Defense Secretary, Leon Panetta said on Thursday that the United States would make more progress than Israel in case of a strike against Iran.
"If they [Israel] decided to do it there's no question that it would have an impact, but I think it's also clear that if the United States did it we would have a hell of a bigger impact," Panetta said.
Western powers and Israel suspect Iran of seeking to build nuclear weapons. Iran denies this, saying its program is of a civilian nature.
