Israel Matzav: Deployment of giant bunker buster delayed

Deployment of giant bunker buster delayed

Remember the Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP), the giant bunker buster that was supposed to be deployed on American B-2 bombers by July 2010? Well, here's a picture of it in case you've forgotten:

At the time, it was thought that the MOP could be used to stop Iran and North Korea from deploying nuclear weapons. I posted about it again here and here (and I even posted about it in 2007 here).

There's bad news about the MOP this weekend. Reuters is reporting that its deployment has now been delayed to December 2010. That delay could be significant in terms of the weapon's usefulness against the two nuclear rogue states who are apparently about to go on line.

A "bunker buster" bomb with more than 10 times the explosive power of its predecessor will be put into service by the United States next December, six months later than previously scheduled, the U.S. Defense Department told Reuters on Friday.

The deployment's timing may help shape calculations of the United States and others in long-running standoffs with Iran and North Korea over their nuclear programs.

...

"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.

Bad news. Really bad news.

Israel Matzav: Deployment of giant bunker buster delayed