Slashdot Mirror
30,000-Lb. Bomb On Fast Track For Deployment
coondoggie writes "Published reports today say the Pentagon is rattling swords in the direction of North Korea and Iran by speeding the development a 20-foot, 30,000-lb bomb known as Massive Ordnance Penetrator. This weapon is intended to annihilate underground bunkers and other hardened sites (read: long-range missile or underground nuke development) up to 200 ft. underground. The Defense Threat Reduction Agency, which has overseen the development of this monster since 2007, says it is designed to be carried aboard B-2 and B-52 bombers and deployed at high altitudes, from which it would strike the ground at speeds well beyond twice the speed of sound to penetrate the below-ground target." Reuters has more specifics on the MOP's chances for deployment by 2010, and the detail that the bomb's load of explosives weighs in at 5,300 lbs.
This kind of bomb is pure stupidity. Remember the MOAB? Pure stupid. This is macho jock thinking, military style. "Mine's bigger than yours!" Pure political bullshit.
We already have bombs big enough to destroy almost anything above ground. As for underground targets - well, I've been convinced by a number of people that even a nuke may not take out a hardened underground bunker if it's buried 100 feet or more. Both Korea and Iran have terrain in which a bunker might be much deeper than 500 feet.
Follow the link, and read the first sentence: "the Pentagon is rattling swords". That one phrase in the first sentence sums it all up.
Well, I guess they have to make up for other inadequacies in some way.
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