ANALYSIS – The Air Force recently released new images of the service's 30,000-pound class GBU-57/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) bunker buster bomb.
The most recent, posted on Whiteman Air Force Base's official Facebook account on May 2, shows a live bomb with an active warhead but without its fins.
The airbase in Missouri is the home to America's B-2 Spirit stealth bomber fleet. An earlier photo released in April showed a fully assembled training version of the MOP with an inert warhead.
Live warheads are indicated by a diamond checkered band near the nose, rather than a blue band on training versions.
This gargantuan weapon is the most powerful and deeply penetrating non-nuclear bomb on earth.
It will be a key weapon in any U.S. strikes on highly fortified, and deeply buried targets, like those found under mountains in Iran, Russia, China and North Korea.
The Air Force is usually very strategic about showing off these unique weapons, so why show them off now?
Well, as Oliver Parken notes in The Drive:
Air Force disclosures of MOPs historically have come at moments of heightened tension – designed in part to send a message of U.S. military strength to its adversaries. Indeed, the current flurry of MOP pictures comes amid a spike in geopolitical friction, including between the United States and North Korea over that country's ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs.Â
As we have noted in the past, MOPs could prove instrumental in penetrating the various very deeply buried missile tunnels and other underground military facilities in North Korea, China, Iran, and Russia. Such underground networks are well beyond the reach of smaller bunker busters, such as 2,000-pound class BLU-109/Bs or BLU-137/Bs or 5,000-pound class GBU-28/Bs or GBU-72/Bs.
Whiteman's Facebook post notes that two MOPs have been delivered to the base's 509th Munitions Squadron for testing.
The B-2 is the only U.S. combat aircraft certified to employ the MOP operationally, but as The War Zone has noted, B-52 bombers have dropped them during testing.
The Air Force's future B-21 Raider stealth bomber is slated to carry one MOP while the B-2 carries two.
According to the Air Force, the latest MOP is only 20% explosive by weight, meaning that the vast majority of its weight comes from its reinforced, highly dense structure allowing it to penetrate more deeply into fortified structures than any other bunker buster bomb.
As of late 2015, the service had 20 MOPs delivered to it by Boeing, but the Air force's current inventory of these bunker busters is unknown.
Back in early April, the 131st Bomb Wing Missouri Air National Guard posted a picture of a GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator (inert warhead trainer version) to its official Facebook account, which can also be seen in this tweet above.
That bomb was shown equipped with its control section and wings attached, including its pop-out grid fins. The blue band indicates its warhead is inert.
So, we can only speculate as to why the Air Force is posting these photos now. But North Korea, China, Iran and Russia should pay attention. The message is very likely being sent to them.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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Will these massive ordinance penetrators (MOPs) bombs be dropped by drag queens or regular pilots? How many Air Force pilots identify as drag queens?
As long as those pilots can deploy them properly I don’t care whether they dress like John Wayne or Corporal Klinger.
Maybe drag queens can ride the bombs down to impact, ala Slim Pickens in Stanley Kubrick’s “Dr. Strangelove”.
Our enemies and their spies certainly know all about these weapons including their limitations. Such public disclosures are done to shore up public support for the government when it is judged to be needed.
As long as they are Xi-busters, Kim-busters and Putin-busters! Oh yeah, maybe Ayatollah-busters and Mullah-busters, as well!
Not sure what they are talking about. These bombs have been around for over a decade.
Too boost sales??