US has waged a war against Muslims and they can't stand a nuclear armed IRAN. Funny thing is IRAN allowed atomic sites inspection, mentioned it's for civil use still it's not enough. Axis of evil IRAN & US are too scared, they know what they have been doing with Muslims and are scared. Why Israel can have nuclear weapons and Iran can't have. Now US is planning to attack Iran with these new bunker buster bombs.
http://thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=214334
WASHINGTON: A bunker buster bomb with more than 10 times the explosive power of its predecessor is to be put into service by the United States next December, six months later than previously scheduled, the Defence Department told Reuters on Friday.
The deployments timing may help shape new calculations in long standoffs with Iran and North Korea over their nuclear programmes, much of which are believed to be underground to avoid detection and enhance their chances of surviving an attack.
The precision-guided, 30,000-pound (13,636-kilo) Massive Ordnance Penetrator, or MOP, is designed to destroy potential targets such as deeply buried facilities that are beyond the reach of existing penetrating bombs.
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.
Congress agreed to a Pentagon request, made public in August, to shift fiscal 2009 budget funds to speed the Boeing Co-built bombs tie-in to the radar-evading B-2 bomber, the most advanced in the US arsenal.
At the time, Andy Bourland, an Air Force spokesman, had said B-2, built by Northrop Grumman Corp, would be capable of carrying the bomb by July 2010.
In disclosing the new deployment target, the Defence Department specified it did not plan to use older B-52 Stratofortress bombers as an operational delivery platform for the MOP, which will be the largest US non-nuclear bomb.
It is designed to penetrate up to 200 feet underground before exploding, according to an article published by the Air Force.
MOP testing is being carried out by the Air Force and the Defence Threat Reduction Agency, which is responsible for safeguarding the United States and its allies from weapons of mass destruction.
The bombs fourth flight test was successfully completed on Tuesday at White Sands Missile Range in White Sands, New Mexico, using a B-52 and an inert MOP, Rigler said.
The Obama administration has given Iran until the end of this month to respond positively to United Nations-drafted proposals aimed at curbing its nuclear programme or face a new round of punishing international sanctions.
Tehran is at odds with the West over its declared plan to use enriched uranium to generate power, a programme Washington and its allies assert is a mask for eventual production of a nuclear weapon.
The MOPs planned deployment amounts to a message to Iran, said Kenneth Katzman, an Iran expert for the US Congress. It cannot count on the main elements of its nuclear programme surviving if there is a conflict.
Israel, widely thought to have the Middle Easts only atomic arsenal, argues Iran could have a nuclear bomb by 2010and says it would threaten the existence of the Jewish state.
Military analysts doubt Israel could disable Irans nuclear facilities in a raid even with dozens of aircraft. Tehran has had years to build covert facilities, spread elements of its programmes and develop options for recovering from an attack.
Strong as Israeli forces are, they lack the scale, range and other capabilities to carry out the kind of massive strike the US could launch, Anthony Cordesman, a former Pentagon strategist now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, wrote in September.
The MOP also may alter the calculus of North Korea, which carried out its second underground nuclear test blast in May. President Barack Obama sent a personal letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il this month amid efforts to persuade Pyongyang to return to six-party disarmament talks with the United States, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea.
The MOP packs some 5,300 pounds (2,404 kilos) of explosives, more than 10 times the amount of its predecessor bunker buster, the 2,000-pound (907-kilo) BLU-109, according to the threat reduction agency, which funded its development.
In a July 8 funding acceleration request to Congress, the Defence Department said the MOP was the weapon of choice to meet an urgent operational need. It cited requests from the US Pacific Command, which takes the lead in US military planning for North Korea, the Central Command, which plans for Iran contingencies, as well as the Strategic Command, which deals with the long-range US arsenal.
The MOP would be about one-third heavier than the21,000-pound (9,500-kilo) GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb, previously dubbed the mother of all bombs.
http://thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=214334
WASHINGTON: A bunker buster bomb with more than 10 times the explosive power of its predecessor is to be put into service by the United States next December, six months later than previously scheduled, the Defence Department told Reuters on Friday.
The deployments timing may help shape new calculations in long standoffs with Iran and North Korea over their nuclear programmes, much of which are believed to be underground to avoid detection and enhance their chances of surviving an attack.
The precision-guided, 30,000-pound (13,636-kilo) Massive Ordnance Penetrator, or MOP, is designed to destroy potential targets such as deeply buried facilities that are beyond the reach of existing penetrating bombs.
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.
Congress agreed to a Pentagon request, made public in August, to shift fiscal 2009 budget funds to speed the Boeing Co-built bombs tie-in to the radar-evading B-2 bomber, the most advanced in the US arsenal.
At the time, Andy Bourland, an Air Force spokesman, had said B-2, built by Northrop Grumman Corp, would be capable of carrying the bomb by July 2010.
In disclosing the new deployment target, the Defence Department specified it did not plan to use older B-52 Stratofortress bombers as an operational delivery platform for the MOP, which will be the largest US non-nuclear bomb.
It is designed to penetrate up to 200 feet underground before exploding, according to an article published by the Air Force.
MOP testing is being carried out by the Air Force and the Defence Threat Reduction Agency, which is responsible for safeguarding the United States and its allies from weapons of mass destruction.
The bombs fourth flight test was successfully completed on Tuesday at White Sands Missile Range in White Sands, New Mexico, using a B-52 and an inert MOP, Rigler said.
The Obama administration has given Iran until the end of this month to respond positively to United Nations-drafted proposals aimed at curbing its nuclear programme or face a new round of punishing international sanctions.
Tehran is at odds with the West over its declared plan to use enriched uranium to generate power, a programme Washington and its allies assert is a mask for eventual production of a nuclear weapon.
The MOPs planned deployment amounts to a message to Iran, said Kenneth Katzman, an Iran expert for the US Congress. It cannot count on the main elements of its nuclear programme surviving if there is a conflict.
Israel, widely thought to have the Middle Easts only atomic arsenal, argues Iran could have a nuclear bomb by 2010and says it would threaten the existence of the Jewish state.
Military analysts doubt Israel could disable Irans nuclear facilities in a raid even with dozens of aircraft. Tehran has had years to build covert facilities, spread elements of its programmes and develop options for recovering from an attack.
Strong as Israeli forces are, they lack the scale, range and other capabilities to carry out the kind of massive strike the US could launch, Anthony Cordesman, a former Pentagon strategist now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, wrote in September.
The MOP also may alter the calculus of North Korea, which carried out its second underground nuclear test blast in May. President Barack Obama sent a personal letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il this month amid efforts to persuade Pyongyang to return to six-party disarmament talks with the United States, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea.
The MOP packs some 5,300 pounds (2,404 kilos) of explosives, more than 10 times the amount of its predecessor bunker buster, the 2,000-pound (907-kilo) BLU-109, according to the threat reduction agency, which funded its development.
In a July 8 funding acceleration request to Congress, the Defence Department said the MOP was the weapon of choice to meet an urgent operational need. It cited requests from the US Pacific Command, which takes the lead in US military planning for North Korea, the Central Command, which plans for Iran contingencies, as well as the Strategic Command, which deals with the long-range US arsenal.
The MOP would be about one-third heavier than the21,000-pound (9,500-kilo) GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb, previously dubbed the mother of all bombs.
