Boeing delivers first batch of 30,000-pound bombs to Air Force- Iran here we come?

[n2doc]

The Massive Ordnance Penetrator — the Air Force has ordered 20 from Boeing — is nearly five tons heavier than any other bomb in the military's arsenal and is made to pulverize underground targets.



By W.J. Hennigan, Los Angeles Times
November 16, 2011, 5:59 p.m.
Aerospace giant Boeing Co. has delivered the first batch of 30,000-pound bombs, each nearly five tons heavier than anything else in the military's arsenal, to the U.S. Air Force to pulverize underground enemy hide-outs.

At a total cost of about $314 million, the military has developed and ordered 20 of the GPS-guided bombs, called Massive Ordnance Penetrators. They are designed to be dropped on targets by the Boeing-made B-52 Stratofortress long-range bomber or Northrop Grumman Corp.'s B-2 stealth bomber.

In an age of new emphasis on drones and lightweight weaponry, the Air Force's purchase highlights the Pentagon's ongoing need for defense contractors to build the kinds of big bombs and other heavy-duty ordnance they have produced for decades.

Packed with more than 5,300 pounds of explosives and more than 20 feet long, the giant bunker-busting bombs were tested at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, the site of the first atomic bomb test during World War II.

more
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-bunker-buster-bomb-20111117,0,3582708.story

[Turbineguy]

1. Massive Ordnance Penetrator

Sounds pornographic.

[montanto]

2. Like North Korea's Long Dong 2

[ellisonz]

3. North Korea contingency plan.

;)

[Octafish]

4. Cost a pretty penny, too.

Someone's gotta make a buck on Empire.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

5. "You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war." Albert Einstein,

[Obamanaut]

6. Additional responses at these earlier posts ->

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=439&topic_id=2329295
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=439&topic_id=2324322
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=439&topic_id=2322971