This is substantially larger than the deepest penetrating bunker busters previously available, the 5,pound 2, kg GBU and GBU A report stated that the development had been a success, and B-2 integration testing began that year.
There are thousands of military facilities around the world that defy conventional attack. Caves in Afghanistan burrow into mountainsides, and immense concrete bunkers lie buried deep in the sand in Iraq.
Negotiators are working toward a June 30 deadline for a comprehensive nuclear agreement with Iran. Should the negotiations ultimately fail and the talks fall apart, the Obama administration and any future US president will have what Michael Crowley of Politico describes as an awe-inspiring "plan B" — the Massive Ordnance Penetrator MOP.
It was designed, manufactured, and deployed in less than three weeks due to an urgent need during Operation Desert Storm to penetrate hardened Iraqi command centers located deep underground. Only two of the weapons were dropped in Desert Storm, both by FFs.
A bunker buster is a type of munition that is designed to penetrate hardened targets or targets buried deep underground, such as military bunkers. In World War II , the British designer Barnes Wallis , already famous for inventing the bouncing-bomb , designed two bombs that would become the conceptual predecessors of modern bunker busters:
But funding and technical difficulties resulted in the development work being abandoned. Following the invasion of Iraq , analysis of sites that had been attacked with bunker-buster bombs revealed poor penetration and inadequate levels of destruction.
