America is rushing production of the Massive Ordanance Penetrator (MOP), a 15 ton bomb that could be used to strike at Iranian and North Korean weapons production facilities buried too far underground to be engaged by current US bunker buster bombs. Photo Credit: Lockheed MartinNovember 17, 2009, (Sawf News) - America is rushing production of the Massive Ordanance Penetrator (MOP), a 15 ton bomb that could be used to strike at Iranian and North Korean weapons production facilities buried too far underground to be engaged by current US bunker buster bombs.
North Korea is believed to have weapon production facilities hundreds of meters underground or into the sides of mountains.
The MOP, which can be carried on B-2 and B-52 bombers, will be able to penetrate sixty feet of concrete. In comparison, current bunker busting bombs like the 2,000 lb BLU-109 penetrates just 6' of concrete and the 5,000 lb GBU-28 20'.
The Pentagon plans to have the bombs available as an option by December 2010, lending greater credence to President Obama's recent warning that Iran maybe running out of time.
The GPS-guided bomb is being jointly developed by Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin at the Air Force Research Laboratory, Munitions Directorate, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, under a joint project initiated in 2002.
On October 6, 2009, ABC News reported that the US Congress had acceded to a Pentagon request to shift funding in order to accelerate the project.
News Copyright © Sawf News. May not be reproduced without explicit written permission