MOP....Massive Ordinance Penetrator

[mmp121]

I think they designed the MOP to be able to be carried by a bomber. I recall reading that somewhere (I'll try to find the link)...

Found it...

http://www.local6.com/news/3899902/detail.html

MOP would have inertial and satellite guidance, just like MOAB, but it would have a more slender shape so it could be dropped from high altitude by a B-52 or a B-2 stealth bomber.

[spadnos]

Originally posted by MultimediaMan
A low yield nuclear penetrator bomb has been developed on paper and in the simulator...less than 0.5Kt yield and about a 5000lb delivered mass.

However, the Pentagon wanted a non-nuclear option and this conceptually was the smallest weapon they could come up with with equivalent penetration and power.

Or handheld, in the few kiloton range. See: Project Orion.

- Steve

[Dr Mordrid]

B-52 can carry a 70,000 lb payload internally, but it can also carry large loads under the wing as done with the X-planes. Cinch it up a bit and put one under each wing.

As for the nuclear penetrators: the big disadvantage to ANY of them is that to get deep it has to dig a channel. This becomes a chimney when the nuke is set off, spewing fallout all over the place.

Another alternative to things like MOP and nuclear penetrators are the upcoming hypersonic penetrators launched from orbit.

These would be satellite guided, carbon composite clad tungsten non-explosive projectiles that would impact at about mach 17. Several of these would be orbited in a bus vehicle that would then double as an orbital launch platform.

Can you even imagine the impact of a 1000 lb projectile at 12,000 - 13,000 mph?

Also in development are re-usable hypersonic cruise missile-like UAV's that can dispense multiple guided hypersonic projectiles on distinct targets then return to a runway.

Dr. Mordrid

[DGhost]

mmm, orbitally launched kinetic energy weapons.

what they really need is a thermobaric bomb that is capable of deep penetration. i'm sure they have worked on it (and probably have it)....

i still want my 40MM thermobaric grenades for my M203

edit: they do indeed have a deep penetrating thermobaric bomb! the BLU-118/B. MMMMMmmmmm. warm fuzzy feelings.

[Technoid]

Originally posted by Dr Mordrid .....Can you even imagine the impact of a 1000 lb projectile at 12,000 - 13,000 mph?.......

Dr. Mordrid [/B]

I'd imagine that I rather be somwhere else

[rylan]

Not like we'll actually use any of our large conventional weapons anymore though. There was/is plenty of opportunity to trop MOAB in Afghanistan and Iraq but instead they're sending troops in to fight in urban combat conditions.

[Wombat]

They used daisy cutters in Iraq, IIRC. And you can't MOAB a city.

[Sciascia]

I had a friend in the first gulf war and said that when the first daisy cutter was dropped that the UK soldiers thought that we had just nuked Iraq!

This is all well and fine, but I just don't think that these are very effective use of resources considering today's needs for the military. A bomb that big won't help in Fallujah, unless you just want to make a big ass parking lot. We already have enough stuff to blow you up from afar, we need something that can help clear out people entrenched in a city. That takes boots. How about using some of that money for up armored humvees or something.

It is pretty cool though, unless you are on the wrong end. The B-52 is also pretty cool, that thing has been in the inventory so long, the only plane as cool is the SR-71 or the U-2. I got to ride in the trail car for a U-2 once, that was a rush.

[Mcollector]

Massive Ordinance Penetrator. Somehow this sounds pornographic.