bunker buster

Or bun·ker-bust·er

[buhng-ker buhs-ter]

noun

1. a laser-guided bomb designed to penetrate deep underground, as into rock or concrete, before detonating.

Word History and Origins

Origin of bunker buster¹

First recorded in 1930–35 in the sense of a golfer; current sense dates from 1945–50

Example Sentences

Brewer, the nuclear proliferation expert, added that Iran would probably opt to hide new facilities even deeper underground to defend against U.S. “bunker buster” attacks.

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On Tuesday, a classified report by the Pentagon’s intelligence branch, the Defense Intelligence Agency, assessed that U.S. strikes, which dropped 14 30,000-pound “bunker buster” bombs and fired Tomahawk missiles over the weekend on Iranian nuclear installations in Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan, failed to destroy core components of Iran’s nuclear program and that any setback would be a matter of a few months.

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The US struck three nuclear sites in Iran on Saturday - Fordo, Natanz, and Isfahan - using "bunker buster" bombs designed to penetrate hardened underground targets.

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Kim Dong-yup believes that North Korea’s enrichment facilities are much deeper than Iran’s and potentially beyond the range of the “bunker buster” bombs — officially known as the GBU-57 A/B — used Sunday.

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While the nuclear facility there is hundreds of kilometres inland, the submarines were close enough to enable the cruise missiles to impact at roughly the same time as the stealthy B-2s dropped their "bunker buster" bombs over the other two nuclear sites, said Dr Stacie Pettyjohn, a defence expert at the Center for a New American Security.

Read more on BBC