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Defense News - United States
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| Sunday, January
29, 2012, 08:52 AM |
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| The
United States have developed a bomb capable to destroy fortified underground
facilities in Iran. |
United
States is stepping up efforts to make a bomb capable of destroying Iran's
most heavily fortified underground facilities, the Wall Street Journal
said on Saturday, January 28, 2012, referring to U.S. officials briefed
on the plan. |
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MOP Massive
Ordnance Penetrator being
offloaded in preparation for its first explosive test.
(Image Archive Wikipedia)
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“The
30,000-pound [13,600 kilograms] "bunker-buster" bomb, known
as the Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) GBU-57A/B, was specifically designed
to take out the hardened fortifications built by Iran and North Korea
to cloak their nuclear programs,” the daily said.
The Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) GBU-57A/B is a United States Air
Force massive, precision-guided, 13,608 kg "bunker buster" bomb
But initial tests indicated that the bomb, as currently configured, would
not be capable of destroying some of Iran's facilities, either because
of their depth or because Tehran has added new fortifications to protect
them, the paper noted.
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, in an interview with The Wall Street
Journal, said more development work would be done and that he expected
the bomb to be ready to take on the deepest bunkers soon. "We're
still trying to develop them," Mr. Panetta said.
U.S. Officials say new money was meant to ensure the weapon would be more
effective against the deepest bunkers, including Iran's Fordow enrichment
plant facility.
Fordow is buried in a mountain complex in Iran surrounded by antiaircraft
batteries, which makes it a very difficult target for air strikes.
Organization (AEOI) Fereidoon Abbasi said Frodow is safe from any kinds
of threat by the enemies.
Tehran said it began the project in 2007, but the IAEA believes design
work started in 2006.
The existence of the facility only came to light after it was identified
by Western intelligence agencies in September 2009.
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Video
MOP Massive Ordnance Penetrator
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