U.S. Air Force Updates Massive Ordnance Penetrator Bombs

Warzone/The Drive: Air Force Updates Massive Ordnance Penetrator Bombs Amid New Iranian Nuclear Posturing

Iran is moving toward resuming significant uranium enrichment in its Fordo facility, which would be a prime target for the MOP in a conflict.

The U.S. Air Force is continuing to update its stockpile of 30,000-pound class Massive Ordnance Penetrator bunker busters, or MOPs, and bring older MOPs up to the latest standard, also known as the GBU-57E/B. This comes as Iran has announced that it will begin injecting uranium hexafluoride gas into centrifuges at its underground nuclear facility at Fordo – the kind of prospective target that drove the development of the MOP in the first place – a significant breach of the controversial 2015 international agreement over the country's nuclear program.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: Tensions between the U.S. and Iran have been building up since the beginning of this year. This is the U.S. getting prepared for any possible situation.

Watch This B-2 Bomber Drop Two GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators (Video)

Business Insider/The Aviationist: Here's what it looks like when a B-2 stealth bomber drops massive 30,000-pound bunker busters on a target

* The GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator is a 30,000-pound bunker buster said to be able to penetrate 200 feet of concrete before detonation.
* In this video, viewers can see the stealth B-2 Spirit bomber drop two of these devastating weapons, among other activities.

Last year we found rare footage of a Spirit stealth bomber dropping a GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator. Here's a clip showing a B-2 dropping two such bombs.

As explained in an article we published last year, there are just a few images showing the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator carried by (or next to) a B-2 Spirit, the weapon's intended platform of the large 30,000-lb (14,000 kg) bunker buster bomb. One of these is the photo we published in 2013, here,as well as the video of the B-2 dropping one of the two MOPs the stealth bomber can carry in its internal bomb bay that we found in a clip by the 393rd Bomb Squadron, one of the units that operate the Spirit stealth bomber as part of the 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman Air Force Base Missouri, in October 2017.

Read more ....

Update: WATCH US B-2 Dropping 'Mother of All Bombs' (Sputnik)

WNU editor: Impressive.

The U.S. Has Just Upgraded Its Biggest Bunker-Buster Bomb

A B-2 stealth bomber Spirit taxis on the runway at Andersen Air Force Base on the U.S. territory of Guam on Jan. 8. | PACIFIC AIR FORCES PUBLIC AFFAIRS

Japan Times/Bloomberg: Biggest bunker-buster bomb upgraded by US for B-2 bombers amid North Korea crisis

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Air Force has deployed an upgraded version of the country’s largest non-nuclear bomb — a 30,000-pound “bunker-buster” that can only be carried by the B-2 stealth bomber and could be used against adversaries such as North Korea.

A fourth upgrade to the Boeing Co. bomb, the GBU-57, has been completed and the existing inventory is being retrofitted, Capt. Emily Grabowski, an Air Force spokeswoman, said in an email. The modification “has improved the performance against hard and deeply buried targets,” she said.

Bombs known as bunker-busters have been in the air force’s arsenal for years for potential attacks against buried targets. The GBU-57, which is six times bigger than the 5,000-pound bomb the air force has had for years, could be used if the U.S. decided to hit underground nuclear or missile facilities in North Korea, as tensions persist over Kim Jong Un’s growing nuclear arsenal.

Read more ....

Update: The World’s Biggest Non-Nuclear Bomb Just Got Better (Popular Mechanics)

WNU Editor: Sending a message to both North Korea and Iran.

The U.S. Military Has A 15 Ton Bomb That Can Destroy North Korea's Deep Underground Facilities

David Axe, Daily Beast: Trump’s Got a Mega-Bomb Designed to Hit North Korea

The Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) makes a MOAB look like an M-80. Carried in stealth bombers, it’s custom-made to blow up Pyongyang’s very deep underground facilities.

Forget the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier that President Donald Trump claimed, wrongly, was steaming toward North Korea to punish Kim Jong Un’s regime for apparently testing a nuclear-capable ballistic missile last Saturday.

Forget the U.S. Marine Corps F-35 stealth fighters that practiced bombing runs on the Korean Peninsula in late March. Forget the contingent of U.S. Army soldiers—part of the 29,000-strong American ground force in South Korea—that Vice President Mike Pence visited Sunday, just a day after Pyongyang’s latest missile test failed.

No, if the United States seriously intends to punish North Korea for continuing to develop nuclear warheads and the rockets to deliver them, then the punitive blow will likely come from Missouri.

That is, in the form of stealth bombers carrying America’s biggest non-nuclear bombs.

Not the 11-ton Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) fuel-air bomb that U.S. forces dropped on suspected ISIS positions in eastern Afghanistan on April 13. Rather, an even bigger munition.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: The U.S. military is going to need a lot of these bombs to knock out the estimated 8,000 underground facilities in North Korea.

The Pentagon Has Upgraded Its 'Bunker-Buster' Bombs

GBU-57 MOP prototype.(Image from wikimedia.org)

Wall Street Journal: Pentagon Upgraded Biggest ‘Bunker Buster’ Bomb as Iran Talks Unfolded

Pentagon Tested Improved Bomb in Mid-January, Officials Say

WASHINGTON—The Pentagon has upgraded and tested the largest bunker-buster bomb in the U.S. arsenal, senior U.S. officials said, readying a weapon that could destroy or disable Iran’s most heavily fortified nuclear facilities should a nuclear deal fall apart and the White House decide to take military action.

Even while the Obama administration was pursuing a diplomatic agreement with Iran to rein in its nuclear program, the Pentagon was readying the improvements to one of its most destructive conventional weapons, including electronic countermeasures to prevent an adversary from jamming its guidance systems.

“The Pentagon continues to be focused on being able to provide military options for Iran if needed,” a senior U.S. official said. “We have not taken our eyes off the ball.”

More News On The Pentagon Upgrading Its 'Bunker-Buster' Bombs

Pentagon upgrades biggest ‘bunker buster’ bomb in case Iran talks fail - report -- RT
US Tested Largest Bunker Buster Bomb Ahead of Iran Nuclear Talks -- Sputnik
US upgraded ‘bunker-buster’ bombs as nuke talks with Iran advanced -- YNet News
Report: US has upgraded 'bunker buster' bomb that could be used should Iran talks fail -- Jerusalem Post
Upgraded anti-jamming technology and improved guidance will enable multiple bunker busters to hit the same spot -- Next Big Future
How the U.S. Would Destroy Iran’s Nuclear Program -- Time

A Rare Look At A B-2 Bomber And A U.S. 30,000lb Bunker Buster

WNU Editor: A rare look at a B-2 Bomber and a U.S. 30,000lb Bunker Buster can be viewed here.

Will The U.S. 'Bunker Buster' Bomb Make A Difference In To Stopping Iran's Nuclear Bomb Program?

US Tests Iran “Bunker Buster” Bomb…So What? -- Zachary Keck, The Diplomat

The U.S. tested its new Iran “bunker buster” bomb for the first time last year, Israeli media reported this week, citing officials who were briefed by their American counterparts on the test.

According to media reports, last year the U.S. conducted the first test of its newly minted GBU-57B massive ordnance penetrator against a nuclear facility replica. The Jerusalem Post reported that the replica “cost millions of dollars to build, was made of concrete and buried under dozens of feet of dirt and rocks.” The MOP successful destroyed the nuclear facility.

Read more ....

My Comment: As a weapon .... the GBU-57 is probably very effective. But Iran's nuclear program is a problem that needs a diplomatic/political solution .... not a military one. Unfortunately .... the Iranians are not interested in a diplomatic and political solution, and the international community is not interested in applying the necessary sanctions against them. Hence .... we are at a stalemate while Iran continues with it's nuclear program.

The Massive Ordnance Penetrator - GBU-57 (Video)

From YouTube: http://AviationExplorer.com - The Massive Ordnance Penetrator (the Air Force has ordered 20 from Boeing) is nearly five tons heavier than any other bomb in the military's arsenal and is made to pulverize underground targets.

Boeing Co. has delivered the first of the 30,000-pound bombs, each nearly five tons heavier than anything else in the military's arsenal, to the U.S. Air Force to pulverize underground enemy hide-outs.

At a total cost of about $314 million, the military has developed and ordered 20 of the GPS-guided bombs, called Massive Ordnance Penetrators. They are designed to be dropped on targets by the Boeing-made B-52 Stratofortress long-range bomber or Northrop Grumman Corp.'s B-2 stealth bomber.

Packed with more than 5,300 pounds of explosives and more than 20 feet long, the giant bunker-busting bombs were tested at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, the site of the first atomic bomb test during World War II.

The weapon's explosive power is 10 times greater than its bunker-buster predecessor, the BLU-109. And it is nearly five tons heavier than the 22,600-pound GBU-43 MOAB surface bomb, sometimes called the "mother of all bombs."

The Massive Ordnance Penetrator is a weapon system designed to accomplish a difficult, complicated mission of reaching and destroying our adversaries' weapons of mass destruction located in well-protected facilities.

The Air Force and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency conducted tests at White Sands, and Boeing delivered the first Massive Ordnance Penetrator this fall. Additional deliveries are expected to be completed by 2013.

America's 30,000-Pound Bunker-Buster Bomb Is Ready

Chicago based Boeing manufactures the MOP shown here for scale. Boeing

The Pentagon's New 30,000-lb MOP Bomb Is Ready To Go -- Business Insider

Senior Pentagon officials told Congress the nation's largest conventional bomb, the Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP), is ready for action.

The Air Force said as much back in June after rushing the MOP back to Boeing for $82 million in modifications and enhancements, but this report puts it on the books as deployable ordnance.

Read more ....

Update: Boeing’s 30,000-Pound Bunker-Buster Improved, U.S. Says -- Bloomberg Businessweek

My Comment: That's one big bomb.

Bombs vs Bunkers

A B-52 releases a MOP during a weapons test.
U.S. Department of Defense

Bombs vs Bunkers In A Potential Iran Attack -- Popular Mechanics

The possibility of an Iran attack highlights the latest arms race: The United States trying to build new bunker-busting weapons while Iran buries its nuclear labs deep underground to try to avoid possible U.S. (or Israeli) bombs.

The United States and Iran have engaged in a war of words over their military capabilities in the last few weeks. But if an actual war breaks out, it will not be a war of U.S. bombs versus Iranian bombs, but of U.S. bombs versus Iran's bunkers.

Read more ....

My Comment: The last sentence of this article is what caught my eye ....

.... Bombing those facilities would have huge consequences for the surrounding area, Cirincione argues. "We have never experienced such bombings in history," he says. "Up until now, they have been considered beyond the pale."

Indeed .... I guess the times are-a-changing.

30,000-lb Massive Ordnance Penetrator Bomb Earns A Rare Honor

MOP dropped from a B-52 Stratofortress (Boeing)

The 30,000-lb Massive Ordnance Penetrator Bomb Works So Well It Earned A Rare Honor -- Business Insider

To achieve its goal of blasting through 60 feet of concrete with a bomb exploding at 200 feet underground, Boeing's Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) team just won a prestigious prize.

The group's recognition with the William J. Perry award was delivered by the Precision Strike Association to honor "one of the Secretary of Defense's number one weapons programs."

At over 20 feet in length and weighing 30,000 pounds, the MOP is a precision guided bomb whose first successful test in 2007 led to an Air Force order for eight more worth $28 million in April 2011.

Read more ....

My Comment: The following video explains this weapon system in more detail.