An 
explosive ordnance disposal team from the US naval station at Yokosuka, Japan, on Wednesday detonated a World War II-era bomb discovered near the fitness center at nearby Yokota Air Base. USAF civil engineers aided the sailors, who detonated the device using plastic explosives. Workers excavating a construction site near Yokota’s fitness center had unearthed the bomb on Tuesday, prompting evacuation of the site. The bomb was packed with an estimated 110 pounds of explosive. “I want to thank all of our emergency responders and the Yokosuka EOD team for their successful efforts to defuse the situation,” said Col. Bill Knight, vice commander of Yokota’s 374th Airlift Wing. “Their skillful handling enabled an expedient and safe disposal operation,” he added. It is not clear whether the bomb was a dud dropped on the former Japanese base during World War II, or a training round buried since, reported Stars and Stripes. (Yokota release)
A new report from the Government Accountability Office calls for the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer to have budget certification authority over the military services’ research and development accounts—a move the services say would add a burdensome and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
