Pentagon Receives 'Bunker Busting Bomb'

The Pentagon has acquired a massive new "bunker busting bomb," the largest of it's kind in the world. The 30,000 pound bomb, known as a massive ordnance penetrator (MOP), is designed to target weapons of mass destruction hidden in secure underground facilities. 

According to FoxNews.com, the 20 foot bomb includes a GPS navigation system and more than 5,300 pounds of explosives. The explosives inside are capable of vaporizing a target more than 200 feet underground, reports the New York Daily News. The MOP is built to fit on a B-2 stealth bomber. 

FoxNews.com published part of a Pentagon briefing on the subject. 

"It gives us a far greater capability to reach and destroy an enemy's weapons of mass destruction that are located in well protected underground facilities...to a magnitude far greater than we have now," Pentagon spokesman Capt. John Kirby said. 

The MOP was successfully tested by Boeing at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico on March 17, 2007, reports FoxNews.com

Not aimed for Iran

According to FoxNews.com, Iran is currently the only country known to have buried its nuclear weapons program. However, Pentagon officials are denying that the new bomb is intended to target Iran. 

"The system is not aimed at any one country, it's to develop a capability we believe we need," said Kirby.

Not the first, or last, of its kind

The Air Force has already received other bombs of this kind from Boeing, but none of this scale or magnitude. According to information posted by the military's Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the bomb is far more powerful than its predecessor, the BLU-109. 

The Air Force has contracted 20 more of the "bunker busting bombs" from Boeing. Three separate orders were placed by the Pentagon with the final one requested in August, reports CNN.com.