MOP, Massive Ordnance Penetrator for Buried Targets

A super massive bomb called "MOP" is in the works to enable strikes on deeply buried targets. Looks like it might be able to "mop" up some bad guys processing facilities for instance.

WASHINGTON, July 16 (Reuters) - The United States plans to develop an experimental 30,000-pound (13,600 kg) bomb, the biggest in its inventory, aimed at destroying deeply buried targets beyond the reach of existing bombs, the Air Force said on Friday.

The Massive Ordnance Penetrator, or MOP, would be about one-third heavier than the 21,000-pound Massive Ordnance Air Blast, MOAB, dropped twice last year in "live" tests at a range in Florida.

Swinson said the mammoth bomb may be designed to fit in the bomb bay of Northrop Grumman Corp.'s batwing B-2 radar-evading bomber as well as the Boeing B-52 bomber.

Wonder if this is in response to Iran and North Korea having extensive underground facilities and the recent denial of funds for sub-kiloton weapons by the senate.

LINK




[edit on 16-7-2004 by Phoenix]

ouch is all i gota say.
thats gona be nasty when it goes off ,should be cool to see though.
that 44000 ound bomb is just scary aint it?

Geez, when they test that they should sell tickets. I'd go! People I know near Eglin felt the MOAB test, so this thing should be impressive.

Here is my personal brush with big bombs

*the 43,600lb'er and The US Army Ordnance Museum

[edit on 16-7-2004 by Spectre]

Wow that's crazy. Nice technology thogh. But wouldnt a nuke do the same...lol

Sure a nuclear tipped bunker buster could do the job but since nukes are not reasonable for political reasons we will just drop a couple of moab's and a couple of mop's which will do the same destruction and no political outfall cuz its just another bomb but not a nuke and if you want to see this thing in action pick a spot on a cliff near nellis air force base that is where they test these things they don't own an area that is bigger than Rhode island for noting


[edit on 17-7-2004 by WestPoint23]

i like how it says ''General Purpose'' on the side of the bomb, kind of makes it sound normal to have a bomb that big

or that the explosion is big an powerful enough to do any job assigned to it.

I think this means Big BLU/DSHTW

www.globalsecurity.org...

There was a story about the MOP this morning on CNN. Just the same information that has been reported here really. But what intrested me was the context they were using it in.

They were basically saying that this bomb was designed because of the studys in Iraqi facilitys that were bombed and the lack of destruction that the existing bombs left. They then went on to say that these bombs are being designed to take out North Korean bunkers and other heavy armoured/underground targets. They reported such things like; "War planners are seriously worried about the threat of going to war with North Korea, so much that at the start of the war with Iraq, air planes were equiped with these bombs in the bombs test state. These bomb were not even on the inventory yet." (Not exact words, but really close). They also said things like these MOP Bombs were being designed because right now (or before) there is nothing that could really penitrate North Korean bunkers, again talking about North Korea.

I would imagine that they are also planning on useing these on Bin Laden if they ever get a target on him in one of his rat holes.

...It seams the USA is ready to take on its next opponent, or two.

Either the Us military is dumb and told CNN that these were designed for north Korea Why do that it will get the Koreans all hype unless they really do plan to go in north Korea but if the US was planning to attack N. Korea why is it pulling out its troops Maybe a surprise attack make the Koreans thing we are leaving than all of a sudden MOP's begin dropping

Boeing is set to build the biggest bomb for the USAF, Called the MOP or Massive Ordnance Penetrator would weigh up to 30,000 lbs. The bomb will be designed to be carried by the B-2 or the B-52. The weapon is being designed to take out hardened targets like tunnels and bunkers.

The Boeing Co. has been tapped to design and test the Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP), a large bomb designed to penetrate and destroy hardened and deeply buried targets.

The Defense Department announced late Nov. 1 that the Air Force Research Laboratory has awarded a $20 million, multi-year contract to Boeing for the MOP program, which is funded by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA). The initial increment of $500,000 is for work that is to be completed by February 2005.

The Air Force has said that MOP would be guided, weigh up to 30,000 pounds and be carried internally on the B-2 and B-52 bombers. The weapon would be used to destroy multi-story buildings with hardened bunkers and tunnels, targets believed to be proliferating in rogue states.

The Air Force had issued a broad agency announcement seeking proposals for MOP. The new effort is supposed to build on an earlier phase that aimed to perform such activities for MOP as defining the guidance kit packaging and assessing the potential to integrate the bomb onto the B-2 and B-52.

MOP

Didnt US ment to use MOAB = "Mother of all bombs" at Iraq? far as i understand it was more like big noise to get # out of everyone nearby, but its destructive power was still very limited. What i now read Bush is trying to get funding for Bunker busters nickname bomb development and far as i understand those are nukes, no basic bomb will get trough mountain walls or if so you need large quantity of em. MOAB was allready very huge to carry on airplane.

Actually MOAB's are very powerful. They say that it has the power of a small nuclear bomb. The MOAB is this powerful because it explodes in the air, just like a nuclear bomb, this is because it distributes its explosive force a lot more evenly. MOABs practically crushes its targets from above.

I'm guessing that the MOP will not explode in the air. I'm assuming that it's basically going to be an oversized bunker buster. The weight it's self, combined with the velocity it will achive from being dropped from thousands of feet in the air means it will probably be able to crash through almost anything before exploding. The explosive force, combined with the penetrating capabilities brought by it's weight and size would be overkill. Non the less this is going to be a kick @$$ bomb.

"Warning, only for presidents / commander-in-chiefs with an IQ of at least 50 or more".

EDIT: Broke up post into paragraphs for readability reasons
[edit on 11/6/2004 by cyberdude78]

[edit on 11/6/2004 by cyberdude78]

All you need to do is go look in the MoD's archives. Barnes Wallis has already done this. First he invented the bouncing bomb to take out the Ruhr dams. His last brilliant effort, in a career that included the Wellington bomber, was the Tallboy. A ground penetration bomb that was used to flatten an aqueduct and collapse a tunnel. And capsize the Tirpitz.

what about the so called "earthquake bomb" developed by the british WWII that was used to destroy bridges and hardened bunkers?

I recall it used siesmic force by penetrating the ground and detonating deep below the surface, collapsing anything in the vicinity.

I think it weighed in the region of 20,000lbs

EDIT: see above post

it was also used to destroy the nazi submarine pens that relentless bombing through the war could not damage

[edit on 7-11-2004 by Lucretius]