"Hey Ahmed. What's that?
It's that MOP you ordered Mr. Ahmadinejad.
Posted on 07/20/2007 4:49:03 AM PDT by biggerten
The U.S. Air Force's B-2 stealth bomber would be able to attack and destroy an expanded set of hardened, deeply buried military targets using a new 30,000 pound-class penetrator weapon that Northrop Grumman has begun integrating on the aircraft. The company is doing the work under a seven-month, $2.5 million contract awarded June 1 by the Air Force's Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio. Northrop Grumman is the Air Force's prime contractor on the B-2, the flagship of the nation's long-range strike arsenal.
The new Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP), which is being developed by The Boeing Company, is a GPS-guided weapon containing more than 5,300 pounds of conventional explosives inside a 20.5-foot long enclosure of hardened steel. It is designed to penetrate dirt, rock and reinforced concrete to reach enemy bunker or tunnel installations. The B-2 is capable of carrying two MOPs, one in each weapons bay.
(Excerpt) Read more at spacewar.com ...
*Snicker*
Some Iranian dictator I can't pronounce or spell just had his butt pucker up a little tighter when he read this.....
I would start sleeping in a tent.
Here comes de judge
ImANutJob didn’t show on those I wanted to ping...
"Hey Ahmed. What's that?
It's that MOP you ordered Mr. Ahmadinejad.
In time for Iran’s nuclear winter — whether it be their atomic bombs or ours...
Quote from the article:
...”According to Mazur, the Air Force is expected to make a decision later this year on whether to develop a limited operational capability for the MOP, or to proceed with a more comprehensive development program that would optimize the weapon’s operational utility...”
Spoken like a polished bureaucrat. How bout: The MOP will take bunker building and busting to a whole new level - sooner rather then later.
Now back to FR tutorials.
Cleanup in aisle 3! Bring a MOP!
**** It is designed to penetrate dirt, rock and reinforced concrete to reach enemy bunker or tunnel installations. ***
Makkah!
Tora Bora doesn’t have any air defense. B-2’s are for a country with an air defense capability.
Nuclear winter doesn’t fit your tag line.
Aren’t the rules here that when you mention Tora Bora you have to post pictures of Geraldo?
“Massive Penetrator” ?
That’s an interesting graphic. Does it represent present thinking or does it relate to earlier battles in the area.
My tired old eyes can’t read the fine print.
What is my maturity age, if that headline made me snicker?
What is “Oh sh*t” in Farsi???
LOL “Massive Penetrator Weapon”
***“Massive Penetrator” ?***
Right on top of the kabba cube. Leave nothing but a crater.
AhmadiNejad!
However, there was a Science Magazine article back in the 1970s that indicated bombing a nuclear reactor could actually produce more radioactivity than a nuclear bomb.
Since we might possibly bomb both nuclear reactors and weapons grade (nuclear material) processing centers, a bomb such as the MOB might produce considerable radioactivity if our intelligence is wrong, i.e., more radioactive material than we planned on being there.
Maybe it does not fit the tag line, but in a sense, if I can't put the fear of God in some people (the Iranians), maybe the fact that we might (or the Israeli's) bomb Iran's bomb production facilities.
CIA/Mossad/KGB/MI5/ChiComIntel etc., are all interested in the poker game being played in and around Iran/Iraq/Afghanistan.
Maybe if I can blow things out of proportion some people might stop their nuclear ambitions in that area.
There are 5 nuclear powers in the area -- Pakistan, India, China, Russia (and some of its former republics), and, of course, the garment factory in Israel. France, Great Britian and the US are the other major nuclear powers, of course...
The timing of this announcement may be saber rattling on the part of the US. It is interesting that NATO has set up security forces in Afghanistan, which may not be as strategic to NATO as Iraq is...
Just a hot part of the world these days...
I recognize you were joking, but on the serious side, nuclear winter isn’t caused by radiation. This weapon would likely not lead to a large amount of airborne particulates, either from blast or from resulting fires. Largespread detonation of smaller weapons, touching off cities, forests, etc., are what is feared for nuclear winter.
China, Pakistan, and India share borders.
There was an explosion in the outer atmosphere above the border of India and Pakistan in the past 5 years. It had nothing to do with a nuclear bomb, but there were intelligence analysts in the US that were concerned that Pakistan or India might think that it was a nuclear attack and retaliate.
It was a very low key incident, as far as media reporting. I imagine it was something of a discussion of a number of Intelligence communities, however, at the time.
I believe NORAD monitored the blast, and the concerns came from NORAD...
Bottom line, it is touchy part of the world to have nuclear weapons in the wrong hands.
There is a Bible passage to bring up:
Rev 8:10-11 (Book of Revelation/Apocalypse) 10 The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water--11 the name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter.
The reason for the quote is that in Ukrainian WORMWOOD is the word CHERNOBYL (there was no word 2000 years ago for RADIATION). CHERNOBYL was the first place in the world where a nuclear reactor caught on fire and contaminated a good portion of the surrounding area (the wheat belt in the Ukraine).
I have a healthy concern that a third world country might start a nuclear war (even if by accident).
***deeply buried military targets using a new 30,000 pound-class penetrator weapon***
***GPS-guided weapon containing more than 5,300 pounds of conventional explosives***
Why would we stuff a bomb with only 5,300lbs of explosives if the whole package is 30,000lbs?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Slam_bomb
Britain’s Grand Slam bomb weighed less, but was willed with substantially more explosives.
Bomb weight: 22,000lbs
Filling weight: 9,135
LOL
Was Geraldo helping the terrorists?
“Hey, that looks like American infidel. Kill him! Allah Akbar!”
“No, wait, he looks like American journalist. They exposed Navy SEALs one time. Maybe he is hear to help us.”
“Yes! Allah Akbar!”
The heavy hardened steel case has the mechanical strength and intertia to penetrate through the overburden to delive the explosive charge to the inside of the bunker.
5,300 pounds of conventional explosives is plenty inside an enclosed space!
Most of the weight is the hard steel casing that's needed to get the payload to where it will be effective
Guys should be familiar with the procedure
Got it, kos and zip. I’m ready to PAR-TAY!
No. He got the memo loud and clear on 9/11.
He lost friends. For him it's personal...
You quote this guy in your profile:
So, I'd say, right around my own!
Geraldo? The, who will pick the bananas in the US if we loose our illegals, Geraldo? That one?
I got the big red X, but I know what you’re talking about...lol
This 4500lb bomb was designed for penetrating the thick
concrete U-boat shelters. It was free-fall until a rocket
motor fired at 5,000 feet, pushing the missile to speeds of
2,400 feet per second upon impact. It could penetrate 20 feet
in solid concrete before explosion and was first used by
92nd Bomb Group on 14th March 1945.
(http://www.303rdbg.com/bombs.html)
Yes, Wallis’ version was the original “deep penetrator!”
Point of order.....
The article says 30,000 pound class and actual explosive weight of only 5,300 pounds of conventional explosives.
What is the definition of “class”
Does it mean the device includes an extra 24,700 pounds of additional material within the 20 foot cylinder? If so, it must be a very dense material.
When Chernobyl went up, a Ukrainian Jewish Family I knew was affected, the father was away and arrived in the town about 50 miles from the blast, about 3 days after.With the reports telling people , nothing to worry about comrade, but the street saying otherwise, they attempted to flee the area on a train.The trains were stopped.They then tried by car and got as far as the next big city, but the daughters and mothers hair started to fall out.The girl was just a about 6 and the mother was in her early 30’s.Some policeman noticed their condition and took them off to quarantine,the father was in a panic. He knew the system to well and went in through a unguarded entrance to the hospital, and snuck them back out.They went to a relatives farm near Odessa, and stayed there for 4 months before returning to the city.To this day the family shows only a few odd signs of health(more colds than usual-and some “private ladies-stuff”), the mother and daughter are quite beautiful, and have long hair that grows at a phenomenal rate.
Not sure how this climbed up in Front Page News.
Nothing new here, the dateline is July 20, 2007.
Best I can tell, the project to outfit significant numbers of B2 for MOPs awaits funding, with Bush having just pocket vetoed the bill to fund it.
Obviously, news of success in getting the MOP operational has major bearing on the likelihood of an attack against Iran, but THIS story is NOT such news.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.