Very big bombs -- like the 10-ton Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) and the 15-ton Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) -- are back in style after about a 60-year hiatus.
Not since the days of Barnes Wallis and his famous Grand Slam have munitions makers been so focused on things that go boom, sans mushroom cloud.
Alas, it's going to be a while before anybody knows whether the MOP actually works, since the first drop test has been delayed 10 months to June. (Ironically, the flight test for the 787 -- a very different aerodynamic specimen also made by Boeing -- was delayed by the same margin.)
Anyway, here's my story on FlightGlobal.com.
An excerpt:
The programme has slipped because of technical problems with a "common carriage" bomb-release rack, says Davis. The undisclosed difficulties have forced the AFRL to design a new bomb rack for the MOP.Development of the weapon's components, including guidance system, control surfaces, fuses and arming device, remain on track, says Davis. AFRL has increased the test programme's budget to $30 million - a $10 million jump - to cover development of the unique bomb rack.
It is not clear how the delays will affect the timetable for the US Air Forces's plan to integrate the same weapon on the Northrop Grumman B-2. US Congress has blocked the funding request to integrate the MOP into the B-2.
on February 6, 2008 11:01 PM | Reply
In 2003 when the US unveiled the GBU-43 MOAB it was described as the largest conventional bomb ever built and the largest conventional bomb to be detonated. Neither claim was true.
During World War II the Royal Air Force fielded the 22,000-lb Grand Slam bomb, employed by specially modified Lancasters. The 26 ft 6 in Grand Slam was designed by Dr Barnes Wallis, famed as the inventor of the 'Upkeep' bouncing bombs used during the Dambusters raid of May 1943. The first Grand Slam was dropped on 14 March 1945, and 41 were ultimately used against large hardened targets - such as the U-boat pens in Bremen - that had shrugged off all other attacks throughout the war.
The Grand Slam was built in the US as the M110 (T14), but was never used operationally. After the war the US developed another 22,000-lb bomb, the Amazon, which was tested but never fielded.
The MOP now outclasses the MOAB but even it is dwarfed by the USAF's 42,000 lb T-12 device, developed for the Convair B-36 from the mid-1940s onwards. The T-12 remains the heaviest conventional bomb ever developed. A B-36 was capable of carrying two T-12s, and this was demonstrated during a 2,900-mile demonstration flight in January 1949 when both weapons were dropped over the Muroc ranges (now Edwards AFB). Work on the T-12 ended in 1954 when the prospect of the first weaponised thermonuclear bombs rendered its penetrating capability obsolete.