MOAB vs MOP vs the Cloudmaker

MOAB

A joule is an amount of energy and a watt is a rate at which energy is used, defined as 1 W = 1 J∕sec The Hoover Dam produces an average of 4.5 billion kwh of electricity per year. When detonated, the MOAB releases the same amount of energy as the Hoover Dam produces in 1.5 minutes. While that doesn’t sound like much, consider that a 10-ton truck traveling at 100 mph generates only 10 megajoules upon impact. The MOAB delivers an impact 460 times greater.

The Massive Ordnance Penetrator, GBU-57A/B or MOP, is a munition designed to defeat deeply buried structures, as much as 200 feet underground. Designed to destroy Iraqi bunkers, It is 8 tons heavier than the MOAB. he Mop weighs 30,000 pounds (15 tons) is 20.5 feet in length and is 31.5″ in diameter. It is armed with 5,300 pounds of high explosives, about half that of the MOAB.

Like the MOAB, it uses GPS guidance and egg crate vanes to bring it on target. Although the MOP has been successfully tested, it has never been used in a hostile action. There are probably twenty or so upgraded versions of these bombs ready for use. Reportedly the new versions weigh 37,000 pounds.

The Next Generation Penetrator (NGP) is being designed in a smaller, lighter configuration to enable it to be delivered by aircraft with a more conventional payload. The weight of the MOP is a major contributing factor to it’s penetrating ability. The NGP may use rockets to give it a velocity that will achieve the same penetration.

Neither of these bombs approaches the weight of America’s heaviest air borne munition, the T-12 Cloudmaker. The T-12 was a 44,000 pound bunker buster developed near the end of WWII. It was almost 17′ long and 54″ wide; designed to be carried by the B-36 bomber, two at a time. Nuclear weapons quickly made the T-12 obsolete.