{
  "id": "RL32347",
  "type": "CRS Report",
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  "number": "RL32347",
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      "id": 312642,
      "date": "2006-02-21",
      "retrieved": "2016-04-07T19:12:17.406029",
      "title": "\"Bunker Busters\": Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator Issues, FY2005-FY2007",
      "summary": "Earth penetrator weapons, often called \"bunker busters,\" burrow into the ground some tens of\nfeet\nbefore detonating, greatly increasing their ability to destroy buried targets. The United States has\nseveral types of conventional earth penetrators. The current U.S. nuclear earth penetrator, the\nB61-11 bomb, cannot penetrate certain types of terrain in which hardened underground facilities may\nbe located, so the Air Force and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) are studying\na more effective penetrator, the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator (RNEP).\n While Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld said in 2003 that RNEP was a study, NNSA's FY2005\nbudget document showed a five-year total of $484.7 million if RNEP were to proceed beyond the\nstudy phase. NNSA said no decision had been made to proceed, and out-year figures were shown\nto meet congressionally-mandated budgeting requirements and were not a request. RNEP requests\nare, of course, subject to congressional approval, rejection, or modification. The five-year figure\nsparked congressional debate. The FY2005 National Defense Authorization Act contained the full\nRNEP request, $27.6 million. The House and Senate both rejected amendments to that bill that\nwould have eliminated RNEP funds. However,  P.L. 108-447 , the FY2005 Consolidated\nAppropriations Act, appropriated no funds for RNEP. As a result, NNSA could not work on RNEP\nin FY2005.\n The FY2006 RNEP request was $4.0 million for NNSA for studies, and $4.5 million for the\nDepartment of Defense (DOD) to study integrating RNEP onto the B-2 bomber. The House passed\nthe FY2006 Energy and Water Development Appropriations Bill,  H.R. 2419 , with no\nNNSA RNEP funds. The House passed the FY2006 National Defense Authorization Bill,\n H.R. 1815 , providing the requested DOD funds and transferring the NNSA funds to\nDOD. The House Appropriations Committee's mark of  H.R. 2863 , the FY2006 DOD\nAppropriations Bill, provided $4.0 million for a conventional (nonnuclear) penetrator study. \nCommittee staff indicated that the bill included the $4.5 million for DOD, and that the committee's\nintent was that DOD use the money to study integration of a conventional penetrator onto the B-2. \nThe bill as passed by the House retained these provisions. The Senate Armed Services Committee's\nmark of  S. 1042 , the FY2006 National Defense Authorization Bill, recommended\nproviding the NNSA funds as requested but denying the DOD funds on grounds that the DOD\nprogram should await completion of NNSA's feasibility study. The Senate provided $4.0 million\nfor NNSA for RNEP in H.R.  2419, rejecting an amendment by Senator Feinstein to delete\nthe funds. The Senate Appropriations Committee's mark of H.R.  2863 recommended\neliminating DOD funds requested for RNEP. On October 25, Senator Domenici said that NNSA had\ndropped its RNEP request and planned to focus earth penetration on conventional weapons\ntechnology, so, he said, energy and water conferees agreed to drop funding for RNEP. H.R.\n 1815 as signed into law ( P.L. 109-360 ) provided no funds for RNEP, but $4.0 million for\nDOD for a conventional penetrator study.\n For FY2007, NNSA requested no funds for RNEP, and has closed out the project. Accordingly,\nthis report will not be updated further.",
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      "id": "RL32347_2005Oct06",
      "date": "2005-10-06",
      "retrieved": "2016-03-19T13:57:26",
      "title": "\u201cBunker Busters\u201d: Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator Issues, FY2005 and FY2006",
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      "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department",
      "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metacrs6833/",
      "id": "RL32347 2005-08-02",
      "date": "2005-08-02",
      "retrieved": "2005-08-10T09:29:11",
      "title": "\"Bunker Busters\": Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator Issues, FY2005 and FY2006",
      "summary": "The Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator (RNEP) program has been the most controversial nuclear weapon program in Congress for the last several years. Supporters argue that it is needed to attack hard and deeply buried targets (such as leadership bunkers) in countries of concern, thereby deterring or defeating challenges from such nations; critics assert that RNEP would lower the threshold for use of nuclear weapons and prompt other nations to develop nuclear weapons to deter U.S. attack. This report presents a brief technical background on RNEP, then discusses the history of RNEP in Congress and the Administration for the FY2005 and FY2006 budget cycles.",
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          "source": "LIV",
          "id": "Weapons systems",
          "name": "Weapons systems"
        },
        {
          "source": "LIV",
          "id": "Underground storage",
          "name": "Underground storage"
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          "name": "Nuclear weapons - U.S. - Government spending"
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      "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metacrs6754/",
      "id": "RL32347 2005-07-06",
      "date": "2005-07-06",
      "retrieved": "2005-08-10T08:51:27",
      "title": "\"Bunker Busters\": Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator Issues, FY2005 and FY2006",
      "summary": "The Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator (RNEP) program has been the most controversial nuclear weapon program in Congress for the last several years. Supporters argue that it is needed to attack hard and deeply buried targets (such as leadership bunkers) in countries of concern, thereby deterring or defeating challenges from such nations; critics assert that RNEP would lower the threshold for use of nuclear weapons and prompt other nations to develop nuclear\r\nweapons to deter U.S. attack. This report presents a brief technical background on RNEP, then discusses the history of RNEP in Congress and the Administration for the FY2005 and FY2006 budget cycles.",
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          "source": "LIV",
          "id": "Weapons systems",
          "name": "Weapons systems"
        },
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          "source": "LIV",
          "id": "Underground storage",
          "name": "Underground storage"
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          "source": "LIV",
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          "name": "Nuclear weapons - U.S. - Government spending"
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      "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department",
      "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metacrs6755/",
      "id": "RL32347 2005-06-23",
      "date": "2005-06-23",
      "retrieved": "2005-08-10T08:52:02",
      "title": "\"Bunker Busters\": Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator Issues, FY2005 and FY2006",
      "summary": "The Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator (RNEP) program has been the most controversial nuclear weapon program in Congress for the last several years. Supporters argue that it is needed to attack hard and deeply buried targets (such as leadership bunkers) in countries of concern, thereby deterring or defeating challenges from such nations; critics assert that RNEP would lower the threshold for use of nuclear weapons and prompt other nations to develop nuclear\r\nweapons to deter U.S. attack. This report presents a brief technical background on RNEP, then discusses the history of RNEP in Congress and the Administration for the FY2005 and FY2006 budget cycles.",
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