WASHINGTON – The largest non-nuclear explosive in the US military – biggereven than the so-called “Mother of All Bombs (MOAB)” ordnance dropped bythe US military on Daesh-affiliated militants in Nangarhar province,Afghanistan last year – has recently been upgraded, according to a recentreport.
The GBU-57 “Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP)” is intended to striketargets below the ground in caves, tunnels and bunkers. Boeing was recentlycontracted by the US Air Force to complete “the enhanced threat response IVmodification,” which “improved the weapon’s performance against hard anddeeply buried targets,” USAF spokeswoman Emily Grabowski told Bloomberglast week.
The MOP weighs 33,000 pounds, whereas the MOAB weighs about 21,600 pounds.The MOP is a precision-guided weapon that has been tested from B-2 Spiritaircraft. Whereas the MOP emphasizes hard target penetration, the purposeof the MOAB, which actually stands for “Massive Ordnance Air Blast,” is airdisplacement over a large area, which injures soft targets like exposedhumans.
The munition’s “bunker busting” ability has been designed with attackingtargets like NorthKorea’s fortified underground military facilities in mind. In October, B-2ssimulated MOP airstrikes over the Ozark Mountains in Missouri, accordingto the Aviationist.
The Pentagon’s combat testing office said in a November report to the USCongress that the bomb was effective “when paired with proper tactics,techniques, and procedures.”
It’s not clear whether the MOP is currently deployed on US aircraftaround the world, Military.com notes. However, a trio of B-2s wastransferred to the US air base in Guam earlier this month.