U.S. tests 30,000-pound guided bomb
Pastor Dale Morgan
U.S. tests 30,000-pound guided bomb*
WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, N.M., March 26 (UPI) -- The United States has
successfully tested a huge aerial bomb designed to destroy hardened
targets, such as deeply buried nuclear sites.
Boeing's 30,000-pound, named the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, or MOP,
underwent a static test at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico
earlier this month to check its effectiveness against tunnel complexes
that could be used for enemy weapons-of-mass-destruction programs.
"The weapon's effectiveness against hard and deeply buried targets
allows the warfighter to hold adversaries' most highly valued military
facilities at risk, especially those protecting weapons of mass
destruction," Boeing Program Director Bob McClurg said in a news release
Monday.
The test was carried out by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency inside a
tunnel dug into the desert. The MOP program was launched in 2004 under a
$30 million Air Force contract awarded to Boeing.
The MOP is being designed for deployment from high altitude by U.S. B-52
and B-2 bombers on "hard and deeply buried targets," such as nuclear
facilities that are otherwise out of reach of current bombs. The next
phase of the program will involve test drops from a B-52.
The MOP is more than 20 feet long and can only be moved by a heavy
crane. The warhead is packed with 5,300 pounds of high explosives, which
the DTRA said gives it 10 times the punch of the current BLU-109
hardened penetrator bomb. Unlike the BLU, however, the MOP is fitted
with steering fins and is guided to its target by a Global Positioning
System navigation device.