September 28, 2001. Copyright 2001. Graphic News. All rights reserved.

ÒCave-busterÓ seen as crucial in U.S. hunt for Osama bin Laden

LONDON, September 28, Graphic News: A weapon put together in record time during the 1991 Gulf war, using recycled heavy gun barrels, could be decisive in U.S. efforts to destroy Osama bin LadenÕs mountain hideouts in Afghanistan.

The GBU-28 Òbunker busterÓ was developed to penetrate hardened Iraqi command centres. Now the laser-guided, 4,695-pound (2,130-kg) bomb can penetrate 19 feet (6 metres) of rock to explode in a cave, incinerating everything inside.

Caves and hidden strongholds of the Afghan guerrillas posed a formidable problem for Soviet tanks and bombers during the 1979-89 occupation of the mountainous country. They are now one of the prime concerns both for U.S. air planners and for special operations forces, some of which may already be deep inside Afghanistan.

The U.S. defence department has accelerated work on a new version of the original bunker-buster, which is known among aviators as ÒDeep-Throat.Ó Bob Sherman of the Federation of American Scientists, a Washington-based think-tank that monitors weapons development, said this had become Òa very high priority item.Ó 

Use in Afghanistan will require line-of-sight laser-guidance support from ground-based operators known as Òforward air controllers.Ó This role is expected to be provided by U.S. and British special forces tasked to identify bin LadenÕs hidden bases dug deep into mountainsides.

The cave-busters will have to be delivered by U.S. F-15E strike fighters -- probably operating from bases in Pakistan -- or intercontinental-range B-2 Spirit stealth bombers which can fly direct from their base in Missouri. None of the warplanes on the aircraft carriers the U.S. is assembling in the region are suitable to deliver these massive weapons.
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Sources: Federation of American Scientists, JaneÕs Air-Launched Weapons, JaneÕs Defence Weekly