The new and improved bunker buster, has adjusted fuses to maximize its burrowing power, upgraded guidance systems to improve its precision and high-tech equipment intended to allow it to evade Iranian air defenses in order to reach and destroy the Fordow nuclear enrichment complex, which is buried under a mountain near the Iranian city of Qom. The upgraded (Massive Ordnance Penetrator) MOP designed for Fordow hasn’t been dropped from a plane yet.
At 30,000 pounds, the Massive Ordnance Penetrator packs brute force and advanced features meant to enable it to destroy Iran’s most fortified nuclear site. The bomb is nearly a third bigger than the MOAB, or so-called “Mother of all Bombs,” the 22,000-pound previous generation of bunker busters first built in 2003 but never used outside of tests. Officials are confident the newest bunker-buster can dismantle even the deepest and most fortified nuclear facility.
Iran’s Fordow Uranium Enrichment Facility, built under a mountain near the city of Qom, has long been seen as a nearly impenetrable target using conventional weapons. The MOP includes a GPS navigation system and more than 5,300 pounds of explosives. It measures 20 feet long and is “designed specifically to attack hardened concrete bunkers and tunnel facilities
The MOP is far more powerful than its predecessor, the BLU-109. Some estimate it’s as much as 10 times more powerful.
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