Now THAT is a BIG bomb! 30,000 pounds.

[American Patriot]

U.S. tests 30,000-pound guided bomb
UPI ^ | 03/26/07



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.

[American Patriot]

For those of you not thinking quickly on your feet today, that 15 kilotons.

[American Patriot]

Hmmm... confused. Is that the weight of the bomb or is that explosive power? That article doesn't say.

[Luke]

I wonder if that is the puppy they were going to detonate outside of Las Vegas that was to create a mushroom cloud. If my memory is correct the test was cancelled. Would have been something to have seen!