MOPping Up: The USA’s 30,000 Pound Bomb
07-Apr-2011 17:08 UTC
“Grand Slam”
(click to view full)
First low-rate production contract. (April 7/11)
During the Second World War, attacking heavily protected targets like U-boat pens and protected “V-weapon” facilities was a key challenge. Enter a brilliant British engineer named Barnes Wallis, fresh off the dam-busting “Upkeep” bouncing bomb. His next trick was a 12,000 pound weapon called the “Tallboy,” a streamlined, spin-stabilized bomb with a claimed terminal velocity of Mach 1 when dropped from 20,000 feet. That mass, carrying 5,200 pounds of Torpex D1 explosive, made a crater 80 feet deep x 100 feet across when it hit. By 1945, Wallis’ next “Earthquake bomb” was in production – the 22,000 pound “Grand Slam.” His creations made short work of U-boat pens.
These bombs went out of fashion with the advent of nuclear weapons, but if you wait long enough, fashion comes around again. Enter the USA’s new Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP). Despite additional funding, and October promises of accelerated deployment, the MOP did not arrive by mid-2010, as planned. Development continues, however, and fielding draws closer…
The MOP Program
Contracts and Key Events [updated]
The MOP Program
With the FY 2006 demise of the RNEP nuclear bunker-buster program, the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency stepped out of its usual verification and WMD detection/ destruction programs to fund a project called the Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP). This 30,000 pound weapon is approximately 31.5 inches in diameter and 20.5 feet long, with about the same amount of explosives inside as Wallis’ Tallboy (5,300 pounds). It isn’t the biggest bomb the USA has ever built – the 44,000 pound T12 has that distinction – but it could well become the biggest conventional bomb ever used. Even the famous GBU-43 MOAB (Mother Of All Bombs) fuel-air explosive weighs in at only 21,000 pounds.
Unlike the MOAB, however, this project’s goal is a GPS-guided, penetrating weapon that can be carried aboard B-52 Stratofortress or B-2 Spirit bombers to defeat “a specialized set of hard and deeply buried targets” like bunkers and tunnel facilities. Some graphics show expectations of over 60 feet of concrete destroyed, and a USAF article stated that the bomb was meant to penetrate 200 feet underground before exploding.
The reasons for developing those capabilities include advancing trends. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman:
“The threats have been developing over the years… There are, without getting into any intelligence, there are countries that have used technologies to go further under ground and to take those facilities and make them hardened. This is not a new phenomenon, but it is a growing one.”
Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell:
“The reality is that the world we live in is one in which there are people who seek to build weapons of mass destruction, and they seek to do so in a clandestine fashion,” he said. “And this has been a capability that we have long believed was missing from our quiver, our arsenal, and we wanted to make sure we filled in that gap.”
MOP Mockup, Whiteman AFB
(click to view full)
The B-2 will be able to carry 2 MOPs: one in each bay, mounted to the existing forward and aft mounting hardware.
According to GlobalSecurity.org the MOP, also callled or “Big BLU” or “Direct Hard Target Strike Weapon” program in some documents, required a total of $11.4 million for development. That’s a very frugal program. Their figure may be wrong, or it could be interpreted to exclude testing and integration contracts – which are already several times that amount, at about $74.5 million.
Northrop Grumman is the B-2A prime contractor, and leads the MOP integration effort. Boeing Company is the prime contractor to produce the MOP, and will also be the B-52 fleet integrator. They serve as a subcontractor to Northrop Grumman for the B-2 integration effort.
MOP mockup in B-2 Weapon Load Trainer
(click to view full)
Contracts and Key Events
MOP comparisons
The program would appear to be in the late stages of weapon development and testing.
April 7/11: Low rate production begins. A $28.3 million cost-plus-incentive-fee contract modification for 8 massive ordnance penetrators, 16 separation nuts, 8 MOP loading adapters, and an aft closure redesign. Work will be performed at St. Louis, MO. The ACC/EDBK/EDBJ in Eglin Air Force Base, FL manages the contract (FA8681-09-C-0280, P00019).
Feb 8/11: Boeing Company in St Louis, MO receives a $15.2 million contract modification for additional Massive Ordnance Penetrator Integration to include flight test support, 3 additional test assets, an alternative/modified fuse design, and 16 fuses. At this time, $6 million has been committed by the AAC/EBDK/EBDJ – MOP Tiger Team at Eglin Air Force base, FL (FA8681-09-C-0280, P00016).
It would appear that the December 2010 goal has not been met.
Aug 9/10: Boeing Co. in St Louis, MO receives a $20.3 million contract modification to provide 8 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) “extended user evaluation assets”: 8 MOP warheads, 8 MOP toolkits, 8 MOP loading adapters; 8 carriage and release equipment sets; 16 separation nuts; 16 fuzes; and 4 separation nut simulators, with associated proposal preparation charges. At this time, $10 million has been committed by the AAC/EDBK at Eglin Air Force Base, FL (FA8681-09-C-0280; P00009).
Dec 20/09: An email from a Pentagon spokesperson confirms that despite the funds for accelerated fielding, the MOP program will deliver about 6 months late. Tara Rigler is quoted as saying that:
“Funding delays and enhancements to the planned test schedule have pushed the capability availability date to December 2010,” [instead of mid-2010].
The Pentagon added that despite the successful B-52 test flight with an inert MOP over White Sands Missile Range, NM on Dec 15/09, they do not plan to use older B-52 Stratofortress bombers as an operational delivery platform for the MOP. Reuters | The Penninsula of Qatar | Iran’s Press TV.
Oct 8/09: A Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman briefs reporters on the MOP, acknowledging that Congress had approved the redirection of $52 million to accelerate its fielding to mid-2010. Pentagon Armed Forces Press Service:
“The department has been “working on technology that allows us to get at deeply buried, hardened targets” since 2004…. Development of the bomb has taken longer than originally envisioned because of variables in the budget process, Whitman said, adding that it is now back “on track.”
...Therefore, he said, the department decided to develop a new penetrator bomb, which should be ready by next summer [summer 2010]. Although there was no “urgent” reason to develop the new bomb, defense planners recognized the need to obtain it, Whitman said. Such a weapon is “an important capability to have,” he said.”
See: Pentagon AFPS | Voice of America.
Oct 2/09: Boeing subsidiary McDonnell Douglas Corporation of St. Louis, MO received a $51.9 million contract to provide Massive Ordnance Penetrator Integration on B-2 test aircraft. At this time $32.15 million has been committed by the 708 ARSG/PK at Eglin Air Force Base, FL (FA8681-09-C-0280, P00002).
Aug 18/09: Boeing subsidiary McDonnell Douglas Corporation in St. Louis, MO received a $12.5 million cost plus fixed-fee contract with performance incentives to provide for 3 Massive Ordnance Penetrator separation test vehicles, associated aircraft and handling equipment, and technical support for one single and one dual release separation and de-conflict test on the B-52 aircraft.
In English, they’re going to test MOP drops on the B-52, in order to ensure safe and dependable drops when releasing either 1 or 2 MOPs. At this time $6.2 has been committed by the AAC/708th ARSG PK at Eglin Air Force Base, FL (FA8681-09-C-0280, P00001).
Aug 17/09: UPI reports that the U.S. Defense Department says it wants to accelerate the MOP program, asking Congress for the necessary funding to ensure that it would be ready by July 2010. UPI adds that both US Central Command, which covers the middle east, and the Pacific Command, which covers North Korea, have endorsed the speed up.
July 16/09: Boeing subsidiary McDonnell Douglas Corporation in St. Louis, MO received a $12.1 million contract “to provide massive ordnance penetrator on B-2 platform.” At this time, $6 million has been obligated. The AAC/708th at Eglin Air Force Base, FL manages the contract (FA8681-09-C-0280).
April 28/09: A USAF team, a Northrop Grumman-led aircraft contractor team, and a Boeing-led weapon contractor team verify that the equipment required to integrate the new MOP on the B-2 will fit together properly inside the aircraft. This includes the hardware that holds the MOP inside the weapons bay, the weapon itself, and the hardware used by the aircrew to command and release the weapon.
The checks were conducted at Whiteman Air Force Base, MO using a high-fidelity MOP mockup and the B-2 Weapons Load Trainer, a device that simulates the interior size and shape of the aircraft’s weapons bays. Northrop Grumman release.
Oct 23/08: Boeing announces a July 2008 test, in which a new fuze well design allowed a Small Diameter Bomb fuze in an 1,800-pound warhead to survive “a supersonic impact into high-strength reinforced concrete and soil” at Holloman AFB. Research partners included Applied Research Associates (ARA), L-3 KDI Precision Products, and Ellwood National Forge Co.
The design is the result of data collected from a 2006 test at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico, when Boeing propelled a 1,800-pound penetrator warhead at more than 2,300 feet per second through high-strength reinforced concrete. Steve Vukelich, director of Special Programs at Boeing says that “This design concept can be incorporated into existing weapon fuzes and [is] currently being considered for a number of advanced weapons.”
Feb 6/08: The Register reports that the Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) will now be dropped for the first time from a B-52 Stratofortress bomber in June 2008, in a test originally scheduled for August 2007.
The problems apparently stem from the bomb rack. It has proved impossible to hang the MOP from existing racks, and a whole new subsystem has had to be designed, reportedly pushing program costs up by $10 million and causing a 10-month delay.
Dec 18/07: A team of weapons specialists at Whiteman AFB, home of the USA’s B-2 sealth bomber fleet, loaded a 20-foot long, 700 pound mock MOP into a B-2 bomb bay replica that’s used for training purposes. Interesting comment by weapons loader Tech. Sgt. Jason Hermann of the 509th Maintenance Group:
“I couldn’t help but notice how enormous the bomb was hanging in the weapons bay. It looked much larger once we had loaded it into the weapons bay than when it was on the loading adapter.”
See USAF article: “B-2, MOP A Devastating Combo.”
March 14/07: Boeing announced that on a MOP bomb body successfully completed a static tunnel lethality test (i.e. “there’s supposed to be an earth-shattering ka-boom!”
on this day at White Sands Missile Range, N
