[RobbyS]

The obvious: Why are they testing it now?

[Semper911]

Why are they testing it now?

Maybe so the full report will run across the N. Korean news wires?

Or maybe to piss off the chicks in pink?

[ModelBreaker]

They may be testing it now for North Korea. The problem there is that the NK's have tons of artillery within range of Seoul. So if we bomb their plutonium "factories", they can devastate Seoul before we can destroy the artillery with conventional weapons. The only current alternative is to preempt by attacking the artillery with tactical nuclear weapons. Saves Seoul--but we have to cross the nuclear threshold to do it.

I read that the MOAB is actually powerful enough to create a mushroom cloud. A preemptive strike using MOABs may be a non-nuclear alternative in NK.

Pure speculation alert.