GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator

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Revision as of 19:48, 9 June 2021 by TrueLivingCorpse (talk | contribs) (Added "GBU-57" designation to several lines where MOP is mentioned by full name, added Wiki link to GBU-43 Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) to Trivia.)
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Massive Ordnance Penetrator
MOPII being dropped
Length 20.5 feet (6.2 meters)[1]
Weight 30,000 pounds (14,000 kilograms)[1]
Diameter 31.5 inches (0.80 meters)[1]
Warhead 5,300 pounds (2,404.0 kilograms) High Explosive[1]
Targets Godzilla
First appearance Shin Godzilla

The GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) is a precision-guided bunker buster manufactured by Boeing and used by the United States Air Force to destroy deeply entrenched enemy bunkers such as those concealing a supply of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). They were featured in the 2016 film Shin Godzilla.

History

Shin Godzilla

After witnessing all of Japan's weapons failing to even slow down Godzilla, the U.S. military stepped in with the president of the United States informing the Japanese Prime Minister that the U.S Air Force was sending in B-2 Spirit Stealth Bombers armed with GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators (MOP) to kill the creature. Night fell as Godzilla made it's way into the heart of Tokyo, destroying several power lines resulting in a blackout for several city blocks. Two MOPs were dropped onto Godzilla, while many bullets and bombs merely bounced off his skin without leaving a scratch, the bunker busters succeeded in punching into his body and exploding from inside causing the monster to lose large amounts of blood and blow off one of it's dorsal plates. Having finally injured the seemingly invincible creature, the bombers would drop several more bombs. Amazingly Godzilla's body endured the damage and even mostly contained enough explosive might that would have otherwise flattened several city blocks within his body, with the explosions only leaking upwards to the sky through his entry wounds, a testament to his body's durability both from outside and within. The monster's glowing body intensified in brightness, changing from a crimson red to a violet, unleashing gas, fire and finally a thin heat ray from his mouth, shooting down one of the bombers before turning it's wrath upon the capitol. The remaining bombers moved in for "payback", dropping the reminder of their MOPs. Sensing the incoming danger Godzilla converted it's atomic power into several heat rays fired from it's dorsal plates, destroying the remaining bombs and bombers before resuming it's destructive rampage to large swaths of Tokyo, the threat to it's existence destroyed in mere moments.

Mechanisms

The GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator is an air dropped, earth-penetrating, anti-fortification, non-nuclear bunker busting bomb and one of the most powerful non-nuclear bombs in the world. After being dropped by a bomber, the bomb is guided towards a target with either GPS aided Inertial Navigation System (INS) or by laser-designation fired by the aircraft with the MOP adjusting it's flight path to the most intense area of laser sparkle by using the four lattice tail-fins to control it's flight path.[2][3] The bomb has four short-span wings on it's body and a slender profile making the bomb aerodynamic enough to achieve supersonic speeds after being dropped from a high altitude. The bomb weighs 30,000 pounds, with a narrow head made of tungsten to punch through solid rock upon and a body made out of hardened ferro-cobalt alloy to survive impact. All these factors allow the weapon to penetrate 60 meters (200 feet) through 5,000 psi reinforced concrete, 40 meters (125 feet) through moderately hard rock and 8 meters (25 feet) through 10,000 psi reinforced concrete like an armor piercing missile or bullet.[4]

The bomb is equipped with a delayed-action fuze, allowing the warhead to survive the impact, not detonating till the bomb has stopped traveling underground. The bomb is armed with a 5,300 pound High Explosive (HE) warhead, with an explosive velocity of about 3–9 kilometres per second causing the shock wave to pass through material at supersonic speeds.[5] The warhead detonates with the explosive yield of over 4,000 MJ.[6]

Filmography

Trivia

  • At the time of Shin Godzilla's release it was the most powerful non-nuclear bunker buster.
    • In fact the weapon is part of the 'Big-Blu' series of Guided Bomb Units which includes the GBU-43 Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB), the most powerful non-nuclear bomb at the time of it's creation and nicknamed the 'Mother of All Bombs'.[1]
  • Shin Godzilla shows only three B-2 Spirit Stealth Bombers. The version of the MOPs available at the time of Shin Godzilla's production and release were so massive that only two could be fit for each bomber for a total of six. However more than six MOPs were used. This is likely an error on the filmmakers part though smaller versions are being worked on.[1]
  • The MOPs in Shin Godzilla were given the designation of MOPII.
  • Some sources claim the MOP's warhead weighs in at 6,000 pounds.[2][4]

References

This is a list of references for GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]

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