Nuclear Weapons Council
This article is part of the Center for Media & Democracy's focus on the fallout of nuclear "spin."
In February 2002, the NWC announced that it had ordered "a three-year study into developing a nuclear-tipped, earth-penetrating weapon that can destroy hardened underground targets." The announcement was made public "in congressional testimony by retired Gen. John A. Gordon, head of the National Nuclear Security Administration, which manages the country's nuclear weapons complex.... In an appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Gordon said the Nuclear Weapons Council study on a bunker-penetrating warhead is examining two possible designs, one by the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the other by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory." Gordon also said the studies "would proceed beyond the 'paper' stage and include a combination of component and subassembly tests and simulations."