Penetrator bomb slides under radar (Massive Ordnance Penetrator - MOP)

tmcnet.com ^ | 5/6/2006 | Mladen Rudman

[Dark Skies]

They're sibling bombs, each weighing three or more times than a Hummer H2, born of engineers at the Air Force Research Laboratory Munitions Directorate and defense contractors.

The 30,000-pound MOP -- Massive Ordnance Penetrator -- is growing up outside the media spotlight. That's in contrast to its older brother the MOAB -- the 21,600-pound Massive Ordnance Air Blast -- even though there's tension between America and Iran.

MOAB was dubbed Mother of All Bombs and played to the hilt by the Defense Department as part of a psychological warfare operation against Saddam Hussein in March 2003. The glide bomb was test dropped at Eglin eight days before the Iraq war officially started.

MOP has been so neglected by the media and the Office of the Secretary of Defense -- despite it being the kind of weapon that could be used against deeply buried targets such as uranium enrichment facilities in Iran -- that it has no publicly announced nickname.

Still, the people designing the weapon hope to start dropping the first of five MOPs from a B-52 in mid-2007 at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

"Our goal is to demonstrate the upper limit of conventional weapons to defeat hard targets," said Robert Hastie of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. "We have the same problems that they had during World War II when they developed the Grand Slam and Tallboy bombs."

Among the challenges is building a case that would permit MOP to burrow far into the ground, rock or concrete before detonating. The big bomb would be used to collapse tunnels or destroy bunkers, for example. How deeply DTRA wants MOP to penetrate hasn't been released.

The glide bomb -- it's steered by unique fins and guided by GPS receivers -- will be about 20 feet long and 30 inches in diameter.

Hastie said the MOP prototypes are designed to demonstrate technologies that could eventually be used in war-ready penetrators.

DTRA is paying the $11.5 million MOP tab, but the Munitions Directorate is managing the contract.

Though it helps that the Eglin Air Force Base directorate also handled MOAB, the two bombs are very different, said Sandy Davis, the directorate's MOP program manager, and Fred Davis (no relation to Sandy), the directorate's Assessment and Demonstrations Division technical director.

Unlike MOAB, which was designed to explode close to the ground to destroy concentrations of troops or equipment, MOP has to be right on target and traveling fast to do the job, he said. The penetrator will exceed the speed of sound while it's plunging.

Demands on the bomb's performance are stringent.

Not only does the weapon have to be accurate, it has to stay intact during its high-impact, high-speed burrow through ground, hillsides, mountainsides or feet of reinforced concrete.

Every component of the 15-ton bomb has to work right, said MOP program manager Davis. No one part of MOP is more important than the other.

"All of the components are crucial," Davis continued. "It doesn't do any good to have a hard nose (for penetration) if the fuse doesn't work."

[JRios1968]

In the stick world, it would be the BMFS!

[null and void]

The need to call it the BMFB...and I won't go into the details of the acronym.

Buried Munitions Facility Buster?

[JRios1968]

That one would work, too!

[GSlob]

Unless the preceding MOP blows the detritus out of the crater - not much. If anything, piles of loose gravel are pretty good at absorbing the impact - they do not propagate cracks.

[freedumb2003]

:)

[operation clinton cleanup]

Who needs explosives? Just launch from a high enough altitude.


Rods from God

Rods from God are a space-based kinetic energy weapon that has been discussed since the early 1980s.

The system would consist of tandem satellites, one serving as a communications platform, the other carrying a number of tungsten rods, each up to 20 feet in length and 1 foot in diameter. These rods, which could be dropped on a target with as little as 15 minutes notice, would enter the Earth's atmosphere at a speed of 36,000 feet per second - about as fast as a meteor. Upon impact, the rod would be capable of producing all the effects of an earth-penetrating nuclear weapon, without any of the radioactive fallout. This type of weapon relies on kinetic energy, rather than high-explosives, to generate destructive force.

They would conceivably be particularly well adapted to penetrate hardened targets, such as underground nuclear facilities.

There are major difficulties involved. One of them is where to position the rods. They need to be high enough to deliver enough energy upon impact, but not so high that they vaporize in Earth's atmosphere. The other difficulty is the number of satellites that would be required to cover a material portion of the Earth.

[fso301]

I think this ongoing development work has a lot to do with why GWB is trying to keep things cool for a year or two, figuring we have time to take out the Iranian underground facilities with a high degree of success once they perfect the MOP.

Possible but with Iranian uranium enrichment currently at about 3.5% which is far less than the ~90% needed for bomb making, might the current noise be nothing more than an attempt to drive oil prices up and hurt the president politically this fall? A Democratic Congress will in all probability nullify the remainder of the presidents term of office and therefore represents the best means whereby mohammedom and other anti-American interests (including MSM who seem suspiciously keen on this saber rattling) can harm the USA.

[Marine_Uncle]

Roger that on the expanded specs. 2007 is around the corner. If the Airforce is successful at all test stages the Iranian and their dear loving Russian pals are going to have a little problem. As you are well aware all known above and underground facilities could be destroyed within a few hour coordinated strike.

[Marine_Uncle]

"Possible but with Iranian uranium enrichment currently at about 3.5% which is far less than the ~90% needed for bomb making, might the current noise be nothing more than an attempt to drive oil prices up and hurt the president politically this fall?"
You could be right. Surely some of the top key mullahs and their president Ahmadinejah plot to do anything that makes them look powerful in the eyes of some of their less educated people and at the same time continue to use their leverage with the Russians to do whatever damage they can do regarding the west's economies. Unless they actually have a fully operational large cascade centrifuge system in operation in some underground facility presently, they are perhaps 3/4 plus years away from having enough U235 to make a low yield nuclear weapon.
And for all we know, they may have nothing, other then the little 164 unit and it is only working in a purely lab type environment, yielding only a few grams of 90% U235.

[JRios1968]

Hey, Iran

Say "Hello" to our new little friend!

[Marine_Uncle]

We ought to make arrangements with the Sicilians to rub out the 50 Mullahs and their madman president and do the Iranian people and us a favor in one shot.

[Zhang Fei]

The smallest nuke is 100 times as powerful as this bomb. Too bad nukes are radioactive, both literally and politically.

[JRios1968]

Or, tell a few good ole boys from West Virginia that it's open season on Mullahs and there's no bag limit!

[Final Authority]

A tungsten rod of dimensions you described weigh about 19100 lbs each. It would cost prohibitive to place such material in high orbit or to keep such material in place at low orbit.

That is precisely why such a plan is only on the drawing table and on somebodys wish list.

[Marine_Uncle]

"Or, tell a few good ole boys from West Virginia that it's open season on Mullahs and there's no bag limit!"
Go for it!

[fso301]

You could be right. Surely some of the top key mullahs and their president Ahmadinejah plot to do anything that makes them look powerful in the eyes of some of their less educated people and at the same time continue to use their leverage with the Russians to do whatever damage they can do regarding the west's economies. Unless they actually have a fully operational large cascade centrifuge system in operation in some underground facility presently, they are perhaps 3/4 plus years away from having enough U235 to make a low yield nuclear weapon. And for all we know, they may have nothing, other then the little 164 unit and it is only working in a purely lab type environment, yielding only a few grams of 90% U235.

The best way for Iran to protect its nuclear weapons program is for the Democrats to take control of Congress this fall. With the US economy strong, gas prices are what's primarily working against Bush/Republican job approval ratings. A Congress controlled by the Democrats effectively ends the Bush presidency. As such, the best way for Iran to protect it's nuclear weapons program is to ratchet up the rhetoric while her powerful friends aka China and Russia stall US efforts in the UN. The iranian rhetoric drives up oil prices and with higher oil prices come lower Bush/Republican approval numbers going into the November elections.

[Marine_Uncle]

That is the main game plan they conceive. They know how to time things just right. It really is not complicated at that level. Of course as their economy grows worse, and perhaps partial sanctions are agreed upon by the willing, dispite the Russian and Chinese position, the people of Iran shall realize their hopes of improved social economical progress are quickly ebbing away. As the Mullahs tigthen their shara law on the people and reduced them further to mere existence only to live for the moon rock, the people are going to become more receptive to those underlining currents that whisper about regime change.
Once the NY and London traders get enough money out of the artificial price fixing, oil prices start to drop, fall comes on and gas in the US and elsewhere in the northern hemisphere start to drop, the Mullahs will no longer have their bargaining chips lined up quite as well. Things can change.
For all we know, GWB may instruct Condi to tell the Russkies and Chicoms the US just might go ahead and bomb the shit out of the Iranian installations to make a point. And once the Iraqi government settles down, the army go after any in country Persian operatives, Iranian arabs under contract with the mullahs, Badr Brigade, Mahdi army and other factions are put down. Iran no longer has a strong position. They could find themselves out on the limb with no branch to jump to.
Of course things could get worse. Chavez though he only rants, could if special deals where set up with the Chicoms just sell all his oil to them. Nigeria could get worse. The price of crude could stay at a all time high, and lend itself to further increases based on a new set of fears plus the Iranian issue being a fix constant in the new equation.
So I hate to predict anything in these volitile geopolitical environments. So many scenarios can be painted. But what you say is fine with me. It is right on track.

[DoughtyOne]

I'm sure you will. And so will I.

[JRios1968]

Great Minds Do Think Alike!