New American bomb could make nuke use against Iran needless

The ingenuity of American military designers never fails to impress me. The vaunted "bunker buster" bombs of the Iraq invasion are now passe, replaced with the new Massive Ordinance Penetrator, or in mil-speak, the "MOP".

Total weight, 30,000lbs with a warhead of 5,300lbs means this baby can burrow deep into dirt, or soft rock, or sand and when at it's set depth it explodes, destroying anything around it. I like it, for the simple reason that it gets the job done without all that messy radioactivity hanging around. Think of it as a "green' bomb; up to the task but leaves little in it's wake.

Now the question is; did we give a few of these to Israel?

Thanks to reader "B" for the tip.

From The Los Angeles Times November 17

New U.S. bomb gives Iran something to think about

Remember "the mother of all bombs"?

Well, there's a whole new mama in town.

The Air Force's Massive Ordnance Penetrator, developed by Boeing, is more than 20 feet long, weighs in at 30,000 pounds (by comparison, the "mother" GBU-43 MOAB is a trim 22,600 pounds) and is packed with 5,300 pounds of explosives.

The Air Force ordered 20, at a total cost of $314 million, and started taking delivery in September.

The Massive Ordnance Penetrator (wonder if anyone calls it the MOP?) has one job: pulverize underground enemy hide-outs.

Hmmm, wonder which country we don't like that has stuff hidden in underground bunkers?

From Times staff writer W.J. Hennigan's story:

"The Massive Ordnance Penetrator is a weapon system designed to accomplish a difficult, complicated mission of reaching and destroying our adversaries' weapons of mass destruction located in well-protected facilities," Lt. Col. Melinda F. Morgan, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said in a statement.

Experts took note of the fact that the military disclosed delivery of the new bunker-busting bomb less than a week after a United Nations agency warned that Iran was secretly working to develop a nuclear weapon. That country is known to have hidden nuclear complexes that are fortified with steel and concrete, and buried under mountains.

This week, Times columnist Doyle McManus wrote that both President Obama and his Republican rivals have made similar statements on Iran's quest for a nuclear weapon:

Obama and all the likely Republican nominees for president have long said they consider a nuclear-capable Iran unacceptable. There's no wiggle room in that word; no president could back down from that warning without major damage to U.S. influence.

Obama has favored sanctions...

As well as sanctions, the Obama administration is the leader in vigorous finger-wagging and strongly-worded memos.

Read it all