America The Great

15 Tons of How-Do-You-Do.

Updated: 05:42 PM EDT
Pentagon Developing 30,000-Pound bomb
Weapon Aimed at Destroying Deeply Buried Targets
By Jim Wolf, Reuters

WASHINGTON (July 16) -- The United States plans to develop an experimental
30,000-pound bomb, the biggest in its inventory, aimed at destroying deeply
buried targets beyond the reach of existing bombs, the Air Force said Friday.

Weighing some 21,000 pounds, the Massive Ordnance Air Blast, or MOAB, is
currently the biggest conventional bomb in the U.S. arsenal.

The Massive Ordnance Penetrator, or MOP, would be about one-third heavier than
the 21,000-pound Massive Ordnance Air Blast, MOAB, dropped twice last year in
"live" tests at a range in Florida.

The Air Force's Air Armaments Center at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, said it
planned to award a contract for the "technology demonstration" work as early as
mid-September, based on a perceived need for such a weapon.

"We think a bomb like this could be important in the future for targets that we
can't destroy with what we now have," said Jake Swinson of the armaments
center, which develops, tests, evaluates and acquires non-nuclear, air-dropped
munitions.

Among companies that have built ground-penetrating bombs are three of the top
U.S. defense contractors, Lockheed Martin Corp., Boeing Co. and Raytheon Co.
Proposals are due by Aug. 16, the armaments center said.

The plan to develop the bomb was reported first by Jane's Defense Weekly. The
project's demonstration phase would cost about $11.5 million through the end of
fiscal 2007, it said.

Flight testing is projected in about 2006, Swinson said.

Penetrators are made of special alloys designed to stay intact on impact to
improve the effectiveness of conventional weapons against deep tunnels and
other underground facilities.

The 21,000-pound MOAB, by contrast, is an experimental blast fragmentation
bomb. Packed with 18,000 pounds of high explosive, it would be used against
surface targets and explode at or just above the ground.

Swinson said the mammoth bomb may be designed to fit in the bomb bay of
Northrop Grumman Corp.'s) batwing B-2 radar-evading bomber as well as the
Boeing B-52 bomber.

The MOAB, a modernization of the Vietnam-era BLU-82 "Daisy Cutter" used to
clear jungle helicopter landing zones, may be dropped only from slow-flying
C-130 transport aircraft.

The new bomb would not be the largest ever built by the United States. A
44,000-pounder was carried by Cold War era B-36 intercontinental bombers but
was never used [Unfortunately].



Popeye
"Best thing for him, really. His therapy
was going nowhere," -Hannibal Lector.

"Popeye NCAT3" <buzcutt454@aol.comByteMe> wrote in message
news:20040716203603.15906.00001146@mb-m21.aol.com...
>
>
> 15 Tons of How-Do-You-Do.

http://slate.msn.com/id/2080106/

http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita...tions/moab.htm

http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita...ons/blu-82.htm

And my personal favorite:

http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita...itions/fae.htm

"Popeye NCAT3" <buzcutt454@aol.comByteMe> wrote in message
news:20040716203603.15906.00001146@mb-m21.aol.com...
>
>
> 15 Tons of How-Do-You-Do.

http://daily.nysun.com/Repository/ge.../23&ID=Ar01000