The American Spectator

Or, to paraphrase the Gipper, you can dig but you can’t hide. Buried in the news yesterday was a report that will rock Las Vegas. Literally.

In about three months, the boys and girls will be testing a new device at the Nevada test range on Nellis AFB near Las Vegas. Normally, that wouldn’t cause anyone’s dice to jump, but in this case the new device is a 700-ton — yep, you read that right, 140,000 pounds if my math is right — weapon called “Divine Strake.” It’s a penetrator that is designed to go very deep and then destroy whatever its explosive charge can reach. And that will be very deep indeed. (Strake, by the by, is an archaic term for the planks or plates at the very bottom of a ship’s hull going from stem to stern).

This is clearly being developed with the Iranian nuclear weapons program in mind. I asked my favorite RSG and FNC senior military analyst Lt. Gen. Tom McInerny about Divine Strake. He said:

The DTRA test on a 700 ton warhead is designed to penetrate deeply buried bunkers and nuclear facilities that our adversaries are building. We are using conventional explosives with very advanced penetrating warheads to penetrate hardened granite or concrete targets. Although the penetrating distances are classified they are very impressive.

I also asked Tom about the Iran wargames coming up. His view is that they will provide us with a lot of valuable intel about how the Iranian military operates. They have two separate military establishments, and each has its own army, navy and air force. It will be fascinating to see how they work together, and how well.