Updated on
Summary
A bunker buster bomb with more than 10 times the explosive power of its predecessor is to be put into service by the United States next December, six months later than previously scheduled, the Defense Department told media. The precision-guided, 30,000-pound Massive Ordnance Penetrator, or MOP, is designed to destroy potential targets such as deeply buried facilities that are beyond the reach of existing penetrating bombs. Funding delays and enhancements to the planned test schedule have pushed the capability availability date to December 2010, Tara Rigler, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said in an email. At the time, Andy Bourland, an Air Force spokesman, had said B-2, built by Northrop Grumman Corp., would be capable of carrying the bomb by July 2010.
