The pictures give an thought of the scale of the GBU-57 MOP (Huge Ordnance Penetrator).
The B-2 Spirit stealth bombers of the 509th Bomb Wing primarily based at Whiteman Air Drive Base, Missouri, are the one plane within the U.S. Air Drive stock at present succesful to operationally drop the huge 30,000-lb (14,000 kg) GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator.
Typically mistaken with the 11-ton, parachute deployed, GBU-43B MOAB (Huge Ordnance Air Blast) often known as “Mom Of All Bombs”, the biggest typical air dropped weapon ever employed by the U.S. navy, dropped by an Air Drive Particular Operations MC-130 Fight Talon II on an ISIS cave complicated goal in Afghanistan, for the very first time on Apr. 13, 2017, the 14-ton GBU-57 MOP is a 20-foot lengthy GPS-guided bomb mentioned to have the ability to penetrate 200 toes of concrete earlier than exploding.
The B-2 can carry two MOPs in its inner bomb bay.
Pictures of the MOP are fairly uncommon. In 2013, we revealed here an attention-grabbing photograph of a B-2 sitting subsequent to a GBU-57. In December 2018, we discovered footage of a B-2 dropping a MOP in a video of the 393rd Bomb Squadron, one of many models that function the Spirit stealth bomber as a part of the 509th BW.
At first of April, the 131st BW, a unit of the Missouri Air Nationwide Guard, additionally stationed at Whiteman Air Drive Base, posted some photographs together with one depicting an inert GBU-57, used for coaching functions.
Some extra photos have simply been posted by the 509th BW Fb web page. As defined within the submit, “509th Munitions Squadron added two Huge Ordnance Penetrators (MOPs) to their arsenal, to allow them to take a look at their efficiency.”
These photographs are notably attention-grabbing as they present a “Dwell” GBU-57: versus the blue one, the yellow band across the nostril is used to identify bombs with high-explosive filler. Nevertheless, on this case, the stencil is barely totally different than which you can see on different weapons: the band is checkered fairly than stable.
Additionally, one of many pictures offers a fairly clear shot of the load and kinds of fillers within the bomb. 4400 lbs of AFX-757, an explosive lately developed by the AFRL to be used in penetrating bombs, & 762 (752?) lbs of PBXN-114 for a complete of ~5,162 lbs of HE filler. 2/2 @FranticGoat pic.twitter.com/mzuXGwKTWk
— IntelWalrus (@IntelWalrus) May 3, 2023
David Cenciotti is a journalist primarily based in Rome, Italy. He’s the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of many world’s most well-known and browse navy aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for main worldwide magazines, together with Air Forces Month-to-month, Fight Plane, and plenty of others, protecting aviation, protection, conflict, business, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown a number of fight planes with totally different air forces. He’s a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Drive, a non-public pilot and a graduate in Pc Engineering. He has written 5 books and contributed to many extra ones.
