Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator
The Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator ( RNEP ) was an American project with the aim of developing a bunker-breaking weapon with a nuclear warhead that would penetrate very deeply to underground targets.
Before the Iraq war , the US forces were interested in the concept of RNEP because they feared that Iraq was storing weapons of mass destruction in bunkers built over 30 meters below the sand. None of the conventional weapons of the time could destroy such targets, not even the bunker-breaking version of the B-61 nuclear free-fall bomb .
It was decided to examine existing nuclear weapons for a possible modification. The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory investigated the nuclear unguided bomb B-83 , while Los Alamos National Laboratory -B 61 did this in.
In 2005 the National Nuclear Security Administration stopped the project in favor of conventional weapons ( Massive Ordnance Penetrator ).
See also
- Massive Ordnance Penetrator
- T-12 Cloudmaker
- Grand Slam
- Tallboy bomb
- MOAB
- Daisy cutter
- Father of all bombs