The Defense Threat Reduction Agency has completed a successful first explosive test of the 30,000-pound Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) conventional weapon, which is designed to defeat hard and deeply buried targets. DTRA, which conducted the test in its test tunnel on the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, noted in its release that the MOP test had nothing to do with the cancelled Divine Strake experiment. The Air Force Research Lab’s Munitions Directorate at Eglin AFB, Fla., is working with DTRA on the massive penetrator program, which could lead to “potential acquisition of such a weapon in the future.”
An important U.S. Air Force E-3 Sentry AWACS command and control plane was among the aircraft damaged in a March 27 Iranian missile and drone attack on Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, people familiar with the matter told Air & Space Forces Magazine.