Posted on 07/20/2007 4:49:03 AM PDT by biggerten
The U.S. Air Force's B-2 stealth bomber would be able to attack and destroy an expanded set of hardened, deeply buried military targets using a new 30,000 pound-class penetrator weapon that Northrop Grumman has begun integrating on the aircraft. The company is doing the work under a seven-month, $2.5 million contract awarded June 1 by the Air Force's Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio. Northrop Grumman is the Air Force's prime contractor on the B-2, the flagship of the nation's long-range strike arsenal.
The new Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP), which is being developed by The Boeing Company, is a GPS-guided weapon containing more than 5,300 pounds of conventional explosives inside a 20.5-foot long enclosure of hardened steel. It is designed to penetrate dirt, rock and reinforced concrete to reach enemy bunker or tunnel installations. The B-2 is capable of carrying two MOPs, one in each weapons bay.
(Excerpt) Read more at spacewar.com ...
What is my maturity age, if that headline made me snicker?
What is “Oh sh*t” in Farsi???
LOL “Massive Penetrator Weapon”
***“Massive Penetrator” ?***
Right on top of the kabba cube. Leave nothing but a crater.
AhmadiNejad!
However, there was a Science Magazine article back in the 1970s that indicated bombing a nuclear reactor could actually produce more radioactivity than a nuclear bomb.
Since we might possibly bomb both nuclear reactors and weapons grade (nuclear material) processing centers, a bomb such as the MOB might produce considerable radioactivity if our intelligence is wrong, i.e., more radioactive material than we planned on being there.
Maybe it does not fit the tag line, but in a sense, if I can't put the fear of God in some people (the Iranians), maybe the fact that we might (or the Israeli's) bomb Iran's bomb production facilities.
CIA/Mossad/KGB/MI5/ChiComIntel etc., are all interested in the poker game being played in and around Iran/Iraq/Afghanistan.
Maybe if I can blow things out of proportion some people might stop their nuclear ambitions in that area.
There are 5 nuclear powers in the area -- Pakistan, India, China, Russia (and some of its former republics), and, of course, the garment factory in Israel. France, Great Britian and the US are the other major nuclear powers, of course...
The timing of this announcement may be saber rattling on the part of the US. It is interesting that NATO has set up security forces in Afghanistan, which may not be as strategic to NATO as Iraq is...
Just a hot part of the world these days...
I recognize you were joking, but on the serious side, nuclear winter isn’t caused by radiation. This weapon would likely not lead to a large amount of airborne particulates, either from blast or from resulting fires. Largespread detonation of smaller weapons, touching off cities, forests, etc., are what is feared for nuclear winter.
China, Pakistan, and India share borders.
There was an explosion in the outer atmosphere above the border of India and Pakistan in the past 5 years. It had nothing to do with a nuclear bomb, but there were intelligence analysts in the US that were concerned that Pakistan or India might think that it was a nuclear attack and retaliate.
It was a very low key incident, as far as media reporting. I imagine it was something of a discussion of a number of Intelligence communities, however, at the time.
I believe NORAD monitored the blast, and the concerns came from NORAD...
Bottom line, it is touchy part of the world to have nuclear weapons in the wrong hands.
There is a Bible passage to bring up:
Rev 8:10-11 (Book of Revelation/Apocalypse) 10 The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water--11 the name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter.
The reason for the quote is that in Ukrainian WORMWOOD is the word CHERNOBYL (there was no word 2000 years ago for RADIATION). CHERNOBYL was the first place in the world where a nuclear reactor caught on fire and contaminated a good portion of the surrounding area (the wheat belt in the Ukraine).
I have a healthy concern that a third world country might start a nuclear war (even if by accident).
***deeply buried military targets using a new 30,000 pound-class penetrator weapon***
***GPS-guided weapon containing more than 5,300 pounds of conventional explosives***
Why would we stuff a bomb with only 5,300lbs of explosives if the whole package is 30,000lbs?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Slam_bomb
Britain’s Grand Slam bomb weighed less, but was willed with substantially more explosives.
Bomb weight: 22,000lbs
Filling weight: 9,135
LOL
Was Geraldo helping the terrorists?
“Hey, that looks like American infidel. Kill him! Allah Akbar!”
“No, wait, he looks like American journalist. They exposed Navy SEALs one time. Maybe he is hear to help us.”
“Yes! Allah Akbar!”
The heavy hardened steel case has the mechanical strength and intertia to penetrate through the overburden to delive the explosive charge to the inside of the bunker.
5,300 pounds of conventional explosives is plenty inside an enclosed space!
Most of the weight is the hard steel casing that's needed to get the payload to where it will be effective
Guys should be familiar with the procedure
Got it, kos and zip. I’m ready to PAR-TAY!
No. He got the memo loud and clear on 9/11.
He lost friends. For him it's personal...
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