Posted on 11/08/2004 11:22:55 AM PST by areafiftyone
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- The Air Force built a weapon so big it was nicknamed "Mother of All Bombs" on the eve of the war with Iraq, but MOAB would be dwarfed by a much larger munition now under study.
The proposed Massive Ordnance Penetrator, or MOP, would weigh 30,000 pounds, nearly 40 percent more than the 21,000 pound MOAB -- officially Massive Ordnance Air Blast -- that never saw combat. MOAB, on the other hand, explodes just above the ground. It is a larger version of the BLU-84 "Daisy Cutter" that was used during the Vietnam War to blast out helicopter landing zones in jungle areas.
The 15,000-pound Daisy Cutter also was dropped during the 1991 Persian Gulf War to clear minefields and more recently to blast caves believed to be hiding terrorists in Afghanistan. MOAB can be against similar targets and structures or vehicles susceptible to surface blast damage. Both also are seen as psychological weapons that can demoralize an enemy.
During the next 16 months the Munitions Directorate at this Florida Panhandle base will look at everything from MOP's shape to its guidance. The Pentagon's Defense Threat Reduction Agency is providing $500,000 in initial research money.
If the project gets beyond the initial research and development phase, MOP probably won't see its first armed drop until 2006 or later.
MOP would have inertial and satellite guidance, just like MOAB, but it would have a more slender shape so it could be dropped from high altitude by a B-52 or a B-2 stealth bomber.
The Daisy Cutter and MOAB are too bulky to be carried by sleek bombers and must be pushed out of the rear door of lower-flying and slower cargo planes.
American engineers to terrorists: Watch this drive!
weapons grade high order ping
B-29's, B-36 dropped this size weapon after the war. A GrandSlam is at the MD Aberdeen Proving Ground museum, and a Tall Boy is in storage there if anybody wants to go look at them.
New version is almost certainly GPS guided so spin-stablizing is out, but they'ed be supersonic to go as deep as possible.
Too big for bomb bays?
Nah.
Depending on length, diameter, tail fin length, and mounting hardware, the B-52, B-1, and B-2 could easily hold one or more that sized bomb.
Figure up to 6 foot dia (more like only 48-66 inch diameter though), and a length of 15-20 foot. probably half of the mass is hardened steel nose and casing to go through concrete and rock to get 100-150 feet underground before exploding.
Expect a crater of 100 foot diameter at the surface, and a 200 foot destruction diameter underground.
External hard points.
isn't a fuel air explosive more powerful than this?
OK, how about a wing mount like the AGM-28 Hound Dog:
Even though the AGM-28 weighs 20,000 lbs less than the MOP.
We need pics...
learned something, thanks.
Animation of a FAE
Animation of a FAE
They need a better acronym. This one just doesn't inspire an acceptable amount of fear.
Don't forget Gigli! The MOP of box office flops! :)
"I was just about to ask.................."What the heck are they going to drop it from??"
The Eiffel Tower???
Tie 'er on underneath and cut the rope at the right time! :)
When I was a kid, I could go to the high point of our pasture and watch the planes bomb at a nearby bombing range. Couldn't see them actually release the bombs but could see them diving, then hear and feel the impact. Often would also hear the roar of a Vulcan.
What do they have that we don't know about? They won't design a new plan just to drop an ordinance.
things that make you go......SkunkWorks LIVES!!!! He Alive!
LOL
No.
The size would fit: figure 1 6 foot width of B-52, B-1, or B-2 bomb bay. Leave 6 inches each side for rack clearance; you have plenty of room.
Remeber, unlike the large diameter MOAB (fuel-air explosive mix) carried by a very-unstealthy C-130 and dropped out the back of the cargo bay, this has a cast AP steel sheel and 6 inch to 12 inch thick nose cone to stay "solid" as it goes through 100 feet of rock and reinforced concrete.
This bomb itself is long and relative thin so it goes faster in air as it falls, rather than a MOAB which is big because is little more a large "liquid" filled can of gasoline with a parachute to slow it even more!
Ishtar.
A giant, aerodynamic phallous.
With one big wad! BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
MV
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