Biggest Bunker Buster Ever Is In Production

StrategyPage ^ | August 8, 2011

[Fennie]

After nearly a decade of development, the U.S. Air Force has ordered eight MOP (massive ordnance penetrator) GBU-57A/B bunker buster bombs. These 14 ton weapons cost $3.5 million each. In the last few years, several B-2 bombers have been equipped to carry these weapons (two bombs per B-2). This was apparently meant to send a message to Iran and North Korea.

[RitchieAprile]

..when you care enough to send the very best!

[airborne]

This was apparently meant to send a message to Iran and North Korea.

But with 0bama running things, Israel should watch their backs.

[thackney]

Here was an early Request for Information:

B-2/Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) GBU-57A/B
Solicitation Number: 678ARSS30APR09
Agency: Department of the Air Force
https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=6bded5f03e250578c12cc6939537f128&tab=core&_cview=0
Apr 30, 2009

Looks like they worked out the details.

[GonzoGOP]

They might be the largest by absolute mass, but we used to have some nuclear bunker busters that were useful in making big holes in the ground. The downside was that throwing nukes was always a political no no, but dropping 14 tons of TNT and iron on some tin horn dictator's head is a no brainer.

[StACase]

..when you care enough to send the very best!

First chuckle of the day (-:

[thackney]

http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/mopping-up-the-usas-30000-pound-bomb-03172/

[thackney]

One last picture that compares it:

[Migraine]

So is this the MOABB? Or maybe the MOAB²

[thackney]

Congress Cancels R&D for Nuclear Earth-Penetrator Bombs
http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/congress-cancels-rd-for-nuclear-earthpenetrator-bombs-01404/
Oct 28, 2005

[Cowman]

I seem to remember a British effort to make a 10 ton bomb that was supposed to drill into the ground to generate an underground shockwave that would break up concrete foundations.

I think it was used against German sub pens.

Anyway this isn't a new idea just a refinement of an old one

[Tailback]

MOAB I believe is not a penetrator, just a huge new version of the “daisie cutter”. If I recall correctly it is a FAE (fuel air explosive) type bomb.

[thackney]

During the Second World War, attacking heavily protected targets like U-boat pens and protected “V-weapon” facilities was a key challenge. Enter a brilliant British engineer named Barnes Wallis, fresh off the dam-busting “Upkeep” bouncing bomb. His next trick was a 12,000 pound weapon called the “Tallboy,” a streamlined, spin-stabilized bomb with a claimed terminal velocity of Mach 1 when dropped from 20,000 feet. That mass, carrying 5,200 pounds of Torpex D1 explosive, made a crater 80 feet deep x 100 feet across when it hit. By 1945, Wallis’ next “Earthquake bomb” was in production – the 22,000 pound “Grand Slam.” His creations made short work of U-boat pens.

[Bon mots]

I thought that bunker busters were like gigantic howitzers dropped, that will penetrate as far as they can into whatever, then they blast a projectile even further...

[Bon mots]

GBU 28

[PGR88]

This was apparently meant to send a message to Iran and North Korea.

They will only get the message if one is actually dropped on them.

[thackney]

GBU 28 is not the MOAB.

GBU-43/B “Mother Of All Bombs”
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/moab.htm

[Manly Warrior]

Earlier versions of BBs were indeed manufactured from howitzer gun tubes and modified to penetrate-as to any use of a cannon barrel to actually fire another projectile after it pentrated, I have not heard that, but it is a novel idea....

[thackney]

Just for clarification:

MOAB is a guided bomb which delivers the 18,700 lb BLU-120/B warhead bomb with KMU-593/B GPS/INS. The MOAB is the largest-ever satellite-guided, air-delivered weapon in history [not the largest ever, but the largest satellite guided]. The 21,600-pound MOAB is an improved replacement for the unguided 15,000-pound BLU-82 Daisy Cutter. It is 30 feet long with a diameter of 40.5 inches. The warhead is a blast-type warhead. It was developed in only nine weeks to be available for the Iraq campaign, but it was not used in combat.

The 21,700-pound [9,500 kilogram] bomb contains 18,700 pounds of H6, an explosive that is a mixture of RDX (Cyclotrimethylene trinitramine), TNT, and aluminum. H6 is used by the military for general purpose bombs. H6 is an Australian produced explosive composition. Composition H6 is a widely used main charge filling for underwater blast weapons such as mines, depth charges, torpedoes and mine disposal charges. HBX compositions (HBX-1, HBX-3, and H6) are aluminized (powdered aluminum) explosives used primarily as a replacement for the obsolete explosive, torpex. They are employed as bursting charges in mines, depth bombs, depth charges, and torpedoes. HBX-3 and H-6 have lower sensitivity to impact and much higher explosion test temperatures than torpex. The MOAB weapon produces a very large explosive blast, with lesser fragmentation effects due to a thin-walled aluminum casing.

Contrary to some published claims, it most certainly is not an Ethylene-Oxide Fuel-Air Explosive (FAE).

[SC_Pete]

The message is clear, but the messenger in chief is suspect.