Cost-Minded

The Air Force's desire to speed up the Massive Ordnance Penetrator program is driven partly by cost considerations, according to Air Force spokeswoman Lt. Col. Karen Platt.

The effort to produce a large, conventional bunker-busting bomb to ride aboard U.S military bomber aircraft is expected to become a program of record later this year when Congress approves the fiscal year 2010 defense budget.

But air service officials don't want to wait that long. In early July, they asked lawmakers to allow the internal shift of $95 million toward MOP-related programs. The money is to pay for up to a dozen bombs, plus work required to integrate the behemoth onto the B-2 bomber, among other projects.

"Immediate funding allows continuation of current efforts, fully capitalizing on progress to date . . . allowing faster development at a lower end cost to the Air Force," Platt wrote in an e-mail this week.

Members of the Senate Armed Service Committee are expected to weigh the air service's argument for the reprogramming after the congressional recess next week. The other three defense committees have already approved it, according to Platt.