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jamieooh
11-17-2011, 10:04 AM
Pentagon - POLITICS
Pentagon Receives Massive Bunker-Busting Bombs, Denies Targeting Iran

By Justin Fishel

Published November 16, 2011

| FoxNews.com



MOP

The Boeing Company/DTRA

In this 2007 file photo the Massive Ordnance Penetrator conventional bomb is off-loaded at White Sands Missile Range, N.M.

Pentagon officials are speaking publicly about the military's new 30,000-pound massive ordnance penetrator, or MOP, known now as the biggest "bunker-busting bomb" in the world.

The Air Force has already received an undisclosed number of these bombs from Boeing, all designed to fit exclusively with the B-2 and B-52 bombers.

"It gives us a far greater capability to reach and destroy an enemy's weapons of mass destruction that are located in well protected underground facilities... to a magnitude far greater than we have now," Pentagon Spokesman Capt. John Kirby said at a briefing Wednesday.

B-2 Spirit stealth bomber

B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber

But, strangely, Kirby denied these bombs are designed to target Iran, the only country known to have buried its nuclear weapons program.

"The system is not aimed at any one country, it's to develop a capability we believe we need," Kirby said. That remark was met by audible groans and various comments of disbelief from the Pentagon press corps.

It has been widely reported that Iran has buried it's nuclear weapon production facilities at least 90 meters underground at locations in Natanz and Qom.

This new bomb is ideal for addressing that threat.

According to Boeing’s website the MOP includes a GPS navigation system and more than 5,300 pounds of explosives. It measures 20 feet long and is “designed specifically to attack hardened concrete bunkers and tunnel facilities.”

Boeing successfully tested the bomb on March 17, 2007 at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

Pentagon Spokesman George Little says the MOP is far more powerful than its predecessor, the BLU-190. Some estimate it’s as much as 10 times more powerful.

The Pentagon says it has contracted for a total of 20 bombs from Boeing, some of which were delivered in the fall. But, for purposes of operational security it won’t disclose how many.

On August 2, 2011 the Air Force signed a contract for eight more, meaning it's unlikely it has more than 12 bombs.

News that this new 15-ton MOP is now ready for use comes just days after it was revealed that the U.S. sold the UAE smaller, but very lethal bunker buster bombs.

Public saber rattling from Israel about potentially conducting a strike of its own against Iran also has Pentagon officials deeply concerned, forcing them to make contingency plans of their own

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/11/16/massive-bunker-busting-bomb-goes-operational/?test=latestnews#ixzz1dyIz92Wv

nastyleg
11-17-2011, 11:47 PM
The only thing that bothers me is israel's plans. This could be be like the French in the 50's in Vietnam. Getting us sucked in a war with Iran then they bail out. However could be they get us in a fight we support them they in turn sell our military secrets to the Chinese who sell it to Russia who then sell it to Iran....oh wait they already do that. Military isolation with the exception of those have bled bedside us in war is what the us needs to do. My opinion on the matter.

eaglethebeagle
01-16-2012, 11:58 PM
Israel has fucked up in the past but so has America. Iran contra wasnt something to be proud of. Get past the missteps of both Israel and America and we are all we got the two countries. Israel is our allie over in the middle east more than any other country there hands down without a doubt. So picking out mistakes of the past and applying them here is not logical.

The here and now is iran is full speed ahead in production of nuclear weapons. If they get them they then can certainly use them and at that point they would hit both Israeli and American interest. Its now or never to get this problem fixed.

nastyleg
01-17-2012, 01:47 AM
I agree that Iran is the main threat no question. I am trying to think two moves ahead of the middle eastern politics. If it gets to the point of bullets being sent down the two way firing range and we come out on top we need to plan for the massive power vacuum that is without a doubt going to happen. Nature abhors a vacuum.