Mideast Stars and Stripes
January 5, 2008 By Lisa Burgess, Stars and Stripes
ARLINGTON, Va. — The Air Force’s deep-earth “bunker-buster” weapon is one step closer to reality, now that engineers have tested modifications to the B-2 bomber to carry two of the 30,000-pound bombs.
On Dec. 18, Air Force ordnance handlers at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., loaded a dummy version of the 20.5-foot long Massive Ordnance Penetrator, or MOP, into a mocked-up duplicate of the stealth bomber’s weapons bay.
What the Air Force was checking in the test was whether the B-2’s existing mounting hardware is adequate, and if the bomb fit in the bay, according to Airman 1st Class Stephen Linch, a spokesman for the 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman.
The combined weight of the two MOPs is 20,000 pounds more more than the published 40,000-pound maximum payload the B-2 is listed as carrying.
However, according to 1st Lt. Candace Cutrufo, Air Force engineers have calculated that the airframe of the aircraft is capable of handling them.
“The B-2 hasn’t actually done a test flight carrying the actual bombs,” Cutrufo, a spokeswoman at Whiteman, told Stars and Stripes on Thursday by phone. She didn’t know when those tests would be held.
“But once that occurs, the B-2 will have achieved a new milestone for payload capacity,” and the old payload of 40,000 will be updated to reflect that the bomber can carry 60,000 pounds, she said.
http://www.military-quotes.com/foru...ard-t51220.html
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02-04-2007, 10:09
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