Building Bigger Bombs

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency is trying to build the Air Force a new bomb. It's holding 5300 pounds of high explosive, about 2.5 tons. Reuters reports that DoD is trying to get the new bomb into production by 2010, possibly to "influence" Iran and North Korea into behaving. I'm not sure that's going to work out.

The MOP [Massive Ordnance Penetrator] would be about one-third heavier than the 21,000-pound (9.5 million kg) GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb -- dubbed the "mother of all bombs" -- that was dropped twice in tests at a Florida range in 2003.

The 20-foot-long (6-meter) MOP is built to be dropped from either the B-52 or the B-2 "stealth" bomber. It is designed to penetrate up to 200 feet underground before exploding, according to the U.S. Air Force.

The suspected nuclear facilities of Iran and North Korea are believed to be largely buried underground to escape detection and boost their chances of surviving attack.

The Air Force had lots of practice bombing cave entrances in Afghanistan, and they liked the capability. Ideally, the Air Force would like to collapse hardened and deeply buried targets that lie tens of meters under granite, but the nose of the munition just won't survive (go figure) to cue the explosion. Enter the MOP. From what I know about the MOP's progress, I don't think any amount of money will accelerate the technology fast enough to achieve the Air Force's goal of 200 feet.  And then you'll just see the targeted countries dig deeper. Some things just take time, more than a few years.

Or here's another idea. Instead of bombing the few protected, hardened targets, just be satisfied with taking out the nation's critical infrastructure and facilities supporting the hardened targets. It's just a crazy idea. Would work just as well.

UPDATE: A source emails me to say the technology is ready, it is just a matter of fitting it into a B-2 bomber instead of a B-52 (which it's been tested in) and completing some evaluations. Shouldn't take much money. Maybe DTRA can move some internal funds around...

UPDATE 2: Kilo notes that the article is just a little off in converting pounds to kilograms. Should be 9.5 thousand kg, not million. Slight difference there.

Comments

[Kilo]

"the 21,000-pound (9.5 million kg)"

heh. Designed to take out underground facilities and the Intl Space Station in the same blast.

[Ray]

Will it ever be used. The ramifications are endless.
Nuclear deterrent; gilding the lilly isn't it.

[J.]

Kilo - note that the 21,000 pounds refers to the MOAB's total weight. The MOP is 30,000 pounds of dense metal surrounding 5300 pounds of high explosive. They're counting on momentum to drive a very heavy wedge deep into the ground. Now with dirt, this might be successful, with granite, not so much.

[Kilo]

Dude, the question is the kilograms figure.