[WCUSP] B-2s being fitted for Bunker Buster Bombs

[KATHARLOW at aol.com]

_http://www.bitsofnews.com/content/view/5880/_ 
(http://www.bitsofnews.com/content/view/5880/) 
B-2s  being fitted for Bunker Buster Bomb
Monday,  23 July 2007 Written by _Alexander  G. Rubio_ 
(http://www.bitsofnews.com/component/option,com_user/task,viewprofile/uid,274/) 

A little noticed July 19, 2007 _press  release_ 
(http://www.irconnect.com/noc/press/pages/news_releases.html?d=123187)  from aerospace and defense 
conglomerate Northrop Grumman  (NYSE: _NOC_ (http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=NOC) ) 
reveals that the company is  undertaking the task of refitting a number of the US 
Air Force's B-2 Stealth  Bombers with new bomb racks able to hold and deliver 
the _Boeing  produced_ 
(http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/2007/q1/070326a_nr.html)  30,000 pound (13,600 kg) _Massive  Ordnance Penetrator_ 
(http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/dshtw.htm)  (MOP) bunker busting 
bomb.  
PALMDALE, Calif.,  July 19, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- 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. 
[...] 
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.

The weapon is substantially  larger than the previously deepest penetrating 
bunker buster, the 5000 lb  (2,270 kg) _GBU-28_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GBU-28) . It joins a select  arsenal of massive non-nuclear bombs along side 
the famous _"Daisycutter"_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daisycutter) , the 
15,000  pound BLU-82 bomb designed originally to create clearings in the Vietnam  
jungle to enable helicopters to put down, and which had a lethality radius of  
300 metres, and the so called Mother Of All Bombs, the 30 ft (9.17 m) long,  
21,000 pound (9.5 metric tonnes) GBU-43 _Massive Ordnance Air Blast  (MOAB)_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOAB) , the hitherto most powerful non-nuclear 
weapon ever designed.  

There has of course been much chatter lately that any air strikes  intended 
to knock out, or set back the Iranian nuclear program, located at  hardened 
underground facilities such as _Natanz_ 
(http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/iran/natanz.htm) ,  would require the use of either small tactical nuclear 
devices, or  conventional explosive bombs of a size and design hitherto never 
before used,  like the MOP. 

Of course, planning, and even preparing for a  contingency, does not in 
itself imply any decision to launch an attack. But it  might be prudent on the part 
of the Iranian leadership to dig a little deeper,  both in the diplomatic 
bag, and in a very real and concrete  sense.






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