Israel Matzav: Congress fast tracks jumbo bunker busters

Congress fast tracks jumbo bunker busters

Two years ago, I first reported on massive bunker busters that were being built specifically to deal with an Iranian underground nuclear facility. On Tuesday, Congress quietly approved the fast-tracking of the BGU-57A/B or Massive Ordinance Penetrator (MOP) (Hat Tip: Jawa Report).

The Pentagon plans to rush the deployment of 10 BGU-57A/B "bunker buster" bombs by June 2010. The MOP is so enormous that it can only be delivered by a B-52 or a B-2A. In fact, the B-2 bombers will need to be refitted in order to carry two MOPs.

The MOP weighs in at a whopping 30,000 pounds, it's warhead weighs in at 5,300 pounds and it can penetrate 200 ft (61 m) of 5,000 psi (34 MPa) reinforced concrete, 26 ft (8 m) of 10,000 psi (69 MPa) reinforced concrete, or 130 ft (40 m) of moderately hard rock.

There are more details about the MOP here.

I wonder if Obama will veto the authorization.

Nah, even he couldn't be that stupid, and the veto would probably be overridden anyway.

Israel Matzav: Congress fast tracks jumbo bunker busters