Posted on 08/08/2015 5:59:34 PM PDT by bob_denard
It 's a weapon that justifies the use of the word "awesome" to describe its power. The Massive Ordnance Penetrator — or MOP — weighs in at 30,000 pounds, is almost 20 feet long and is designed to burrow through 200 feet of earth and 60 feet of concrete before detonating.
It's the king of the so-called "bunker busters" and is the largest non-nuclear weapon in the world.
Delivered by the stealthy B-2 Spirit heavy strategic bomber from as high as 20,000 feet, the MOP hits the ground at supersonic speed before slamming its way toward a hardened target through layered subterranean defenses such as native rock, reinforced concrete, and steel plates.
Once it reaches the bunker, the MOP's 5,300-pound warhead detonates, obliterating tunnels, underground chambers and … you name it.
MOP is hard to ignore. Especially for Iran, which has placed key components of its nuclear program such as centrifuges deep beneath the earth. But the MOP's delivery system could be shot out of the sky if an adversary has the right kind of air-defense missiles.
Iran wants those missiles — and Russia is willing to sell them.
(Excerpt) Read more at theweek.com ...
Well for me personally; if Obama has a hand in it 99 out of a 100 times I am going to hate it.
i’m thinking a weapon like that doesn’t have to hit a hard target. Plenty of earthquakes in Iran. Hit a fault line and multiply the damage.
So they built deep underground facilities because they wanted people to think they were not developing nuclear weapons ?
no problem, Barry would never order such a strike-—unless it was against conservatives
During WWII, my Dad worked on a team with James Van Allen & J Allen Hyneck at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab in Silver Spring, MD, building the Proximity Fuse.
....
Well, I learned something new. I also learned about the creation of the APL.
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1993-01-11/news/1993011049_1_fuse-proximity-smart-weapons
My point being that the bomb can survive an impact of 23 million foot pounds of energy and have its internal control circuits intact to detonate as designed is amazing.
...
It is awesome, in particular, when it belongs to us.
Years ago here, I remember a thread that described a ‘titanium spear’ that when dropped from 20,000 feet could penetrate ___ (don’t remember how far). Anyone heard anymore about that titanium spear?
"The B61-11 can penetrate and detonate below the earth's surface, creating a massive shock wave capable of destroying underground targets. In tests the bomb penetrates only 20 feet into dry earth, even when dropped from altitudes above 40,000 feet. But even this shallow penetration before detonation allows a much higher proportion of the explosion to transferred into ground shock relative to a surface burst. It is not able to counter targets deeply buried under granite rock. Moreover, it has a high yield, in the hundreds of kilotons. If used in North Korea, the radioactive fallout could drift over nearby countries such as Japan.
B61-11 Earth-Penetrating Weapon
(that, and the whole "glow in the dark", precedence and escallation thing...)
[I'll throw in two "/sarc" tags - one for you and one for me]
:-)
I am not familiar with a titanium spear but I saw one program on one of the history type channels where we used practice bombs quite a bit as real bombs.
With the guided GPS packs on them, they had enough energy to destroy the target with just kinetic energy without damaging nearby targets.
Thanks for the link! I’ve passed it along to my sister and my kids, too.
The article mentioned testing it along the Potomac - We have an old photo of my Dad in his surveyor boots and Indiana Jones hat out there at the Aberdeen Proving Ground on the Chesapeake Bay, looking for the place the (non-explosive ) test shells landed.
When I was a kid I had an old peach basket with a table spoon, tin cup, etc to dig in the dirt in my grandmother’s front yard. It also contained one of those non-explosive Proximity Fuses. IIRC, it had a green transparent nose cone, (except the very tip) and the back was a threaded steel tube.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetic_bombardment
http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2004-06/rods-god
AIDS — Acquired Islamic Deficiency Syndrome — the body politic in the host country loses the ability to fight off Islamic infiltration. See also Cameron, David; Obama, Barack Hussein.
If I remember correctly it was one of the proposals under Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative.
But I think it was to be dropped from space. Classified as a kinetic energy weapon.
The ‘titanium spear’ with a defeated uranium core could be dropped by the thousands over perhaps a tank battalion, the self-guided spear could impale the tank from the top.
A small rocket motor might be added to ignite at the last moment before impact to aid penetration.
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.