The An-225 is the world’s largest aircraft. However, even this behemoth would not come near carrying the 700-ton bomb that will be detonated as part of Divine Strake

The Pentagon is preparing to test a 700-ton bomb that is designed to destroy underground military targets. The test, code-named Divine Strake, is set to take place on June 2 in the western U.S. state of Nevada about 145 kilometers northwest of Las Vegas and will be the biggest controlled conventional explosion in military history.

The weapon consists of a special explosive which will pack the equivalent of more than 500 tons of TNT when it is detonated. It will create a mushroom shaped dust cloud that could reach as high as three kilometers into the air.

"It is the first time in Nevada that you'll see a mushroom cloud ... since we stopped testing nuclear weapons," James Tegnelia, head of the Pentagon's Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), said Thursday.

Tegnelia described the ground-level blast--dubbed "Divine Strake"--as an experiment to assess so-called bunker-buster weapons now in development. The test "allows us to be able to predict ... how well they can work against granite, hard structures," he said.

Irene Smith, a spokeswoman for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, said the blast will register between 3.1 and 3.4 on the Richter sale but that "there will be no adverse effects to surrounding facilities either on or off the Nevada Test Site."

The Need For Divine Strake

Speaking about the test the head of the Center for Military Forecasting in Russia, Anatoly Tsiganok, was quoted by RIA Novosti as having said, "It could be a move to threaten Iran, North Korea or any other regimes that the United States is not pleased with."

Iran is alleged to have built underground nuclear warhead development sites, a fact that could explain its continued cockiness, in the face of impending UN sanctions and hints of US military action.

According to Chicago Tribune Defense Intelligence Agency and Central Intelligence Agency officials have testified that potential adversaries such as North Korea and Iran increasingly burrow their secret weapons and command centers into well-protected underground bunkers.

The Problem with Divine Strake

While the need for Divine Strake is easy to understand its usefulness as a weapon is more difficult to fathom. The question is simple. How do you deliver a 700-ton bomb! The largest cargo aircraft, the Antonov 225 developed in the former Soviet Union, can carry no more than 250 tons.

Ivan Oelrich, a munitions expert at the Federation of American Scientists, quoted by The Gurardian said, "I suspect this is primarily a test of their computer modeling abilities, because I don't know how they could deliver a weapon like this. They are looking at how different rocks respond to shockwaves."

What then is the real purpose of Divine Strake?

A Nuclear Weapon Test with Conventional Explosions

The White House and the Pentagon have toyed with the idea of a nuclear bunker-buster bomb for some time now. However, their endeavors have so far been blocked by a Congress circumspect of the negative impact of a nuclear weapon test on the nuclear proliferation regime.

It now appears that in the Divine Strake, Pentagon has an ingenious workaround that addresses the concerns of the Congress but at the same time tightens the screw on Iran and North Korea.

The imperative for a nuclear bunker buster bomb test by the Pentagon does not stem from the need to validate the design of a low yield nuclear weapon. (The US already has well tested low yield nuclear weapons in its arsenal). Instead, it stems from the need to validate the computer modeling of a low yield nuclear device against granite and hard structures. With the Divine Strake, the Pentagon is just substituting the low yield nuclear device with conventional explosives.

Once the computer modeling of the blast dynamics is validated, the US will have its nuclear bunker buster, tested and ready for delivery.

Conclusion

The US emphasis on realistic testing of its nuclear weapons has important lessons for Indian politicians and strategists some of whom quixotically believe that India already possesses a credible nuclear deterrence.

An untested or poorly tested nuclear bomb, is a terrorist weapon. Its only conceivable use is to a suicide bomber. It is of no use to the armed forces of a sovereign nation of sub continental proportions and 1 billion people. A claim of Minimum Credible Deterrence based on untested nuclear weapons would befit the Al Qaeda, not India.

Copyright © Vijainder K Thakur. May not be reproduced without explicit written permission.