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 U.S., South Korea, and Japan flew an unusual trilateral flight with two U.S. B-52H Stratofortress bombers escorted by two Japan Air Self-Defense Force F-2s, and two ROK Air Force KF-16 fighters—both countries’ respective variants of the F-16—July 11. That same weekend, the top military officers of the three nations…