New Ordnance Is 9,000 Pounds Heavier Than MOAB

Remember that bomb the Air Force developed last year, just as the US was preparing to invade Iraq? Weighing 21,000 pounds, it was so big and so heavy that it had to be lashed to a pallet and dropped from the back-end of a cargo plane. It was the be-all end-all in air-dropped munitions. It was officially dubbed Massive Ordnance Air Blast -- MOAB -- but it was quickly dubbed the Mother of All Bombs.

Well, move over, Mom. The Air Force is bringing out the MOP.

The 30,000 pound Massive Ordnance Penetrator is designed to bust bunkers or topple tall buildings with a single bomb. Why 30,000 pounds -- 9,000 pounds more than the MOAB (above)?

"The reason it's heavier than MOAB is that it has to penetrate a target."

That word from Fred Davis, a director at the USAF Research Lab's Munitions Directorate.

MOP will be extensively tested over the next 16 months at Eglin AFB in the Florida Panhandle. Unlike its massive predecessors, MOP will be shaped like a bomb and capable of being dropped from a B-52 or B-2. MOP could be deployed in the field as early as 2006.

FMI: www.af.mil