The 30,000-lb Massive Ordnance Penetrator Bomb Works So Well It Earned A Rare Honor
To achieve its goal of blasting through 60 feet of concrete with a bomb exploding at 200 feet underground, Boeing's Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) team just won a prestigious prize.
The group's recognition with the William J. Perry award was delivered by the Precision Strike Association to honor "one of the Secretary of Defense's number one weapons programs."
At over 20 feet in length and weighing 30,000 pounds, the MOP is a precision guided bomb whose first successful test in 2007 led to an Air Force order for eight more worth $28 million in April 2011.
One of the requirements of Boeing and Lockheed Martin's next generation bomber is to accommodate the MOP as the B-52 does now.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/this-30000-massive-ordnance-penetrator-bomb-works-so-well-its-design-team-just-won-a-rare-honor-2012-1
Scuba
(53,475 posts)... now if we just had Medicare for All.
jakeXT
(10,575 posts)Pentagon Seeks Mightier Bomb vs. Iran
WASHINGTONPentagon war planners have concluded that their largest conventional bomb isn't yet capable of destroying Iran's most heavily fortified underground facilities, and are stepping up efforts to make it more powerful, according to U.S. officials briefed on the plan.
The 30,000-pound "bunker-buster" bomb, known as the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, was specifically designed to take out the hardened fortifications built by Iran and North Korea to cloak their nuclear programs.
But initial tests indicated that the bomb, as currently configured, wouldn't be capable of destroying some of Iran's facilities, either because of their depth or because Tehran has added new fortifications to protect them.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203363504577187420287098692.html?mod=wsj_share_tweet
bemildred
(90,061 posts)As you can see, like the bomb, that information does not penetrate.