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.”
The emphasis on speed in the Pentagon’s newly unveiled slate of acquisition reforms may come with increased near-term cost increases, analysts say. But according to U.S. defense officials, the new weapons-buying construct provides the military with enough flexibility to prevent runaway budget overruns in major programs.
