Pentagon releases jaw-dropping footage showing how 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs work
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The Pentagon released stunning footage on Thursday showcasing exactly how 30,000-pound heavy-duty bunker-buster bombs work such as the ones used against Iran's nuclear sites demolished fortified targets deep underground.
The video showed a GBU-57 series MOP (Massive Ordnance Penetrator) crashing into a target and kicking up a massive plume of dust moments before a blinding inferno appeared in a shaft during a test detonation.
A GBU-57 series Massive Ordnance Penetrator is seen crashing into a target. Picture: Department of Defense
The 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs demolish fortified targets deep underground. Picture: Department of Defense
Pilots who dropped the MOPs on Iran called the blast 'the brightest explosion' they ever saw, saying, 'it literally looked like daylight'.
The MOPs used in the strike — which can only be dropped by a B-2 Stealth Bomber — were developed in 2009 after the US learned of the existence of the Fordow uranium enrichment plant.
The bunker buster bombs do not leave craters like traditional bombs. Picture: Department of Defense
A US Air Force B-2 Spirit landing after supporting Operation 'Midnight Hammer'. Picture: US Air Force/AFP
'Unlike a normal surface bomb, you won't see an impact crater because they're designed to deeply bury and then function,' Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Lt. Gen. Dan Caine explained to reporters during a press briefing on Thursday.
'Five [weapons] were tasked to enter the main shaft moved down into the complex at greater than a thousand feet per second, and explode in the mission space … All six weapons at each vent at Fordow [uranium enrichment plant] went exactly where they were intended to go.'
Another angle displayed during the briefing showed an MOP hitting a target in slow motion and cutting through the arched interior of a second ventilation shaft without detonating as it moved its way deeper through the test facility.
'A bomb has three effects that causes damage: blast, fragmentation and overpressure,' he explained. 'In this case, the primary kill mechanisms in the mission space was a mix of overpressure and blast.
'Imagine what this looks like six times over.'
Unidentified pilots inside a B-2 cockpit. Picture: US Air Force
How the US bomber pilots reacted
Lt. Gen. Caine explained that the heroic pilots who helped drop the bombs on three of Iran's nuclear facilities in a super-secret mission over the weekend were awed by the explosive power of the devices.
'We know that the trailing jets saw the first weapons function and the pilots stated, 'This was the brightest explosion that I've ever seen. It literally looked like daylight,'' he said.
He also emphasised that the MOPs don't leave 'impact' craters — shooting down scepticism that the mission wasn't successful.
Satellite images released after the mission show six holes where the deep-diving bombs appeared to have penetrated the mountain above Iran's Fordow nuclear plant.
The press conference was seemingly intended to disabuse reporting on a leaked 'low confidence' Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) assessment that Iran's nuclear program may have only been set back months, Lt. Gen. Caine played jaw-dropping footage of a MOP attack.
A poster of the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant is displayed. Picture:/AFP
Prior to developing the GBU-57, the military had assessed that it didn't have a 'weapon that could adequately strike and kill this target'.
'The crews that attacked Fordow were from the active duty Air Force and the Missouri Air National Guard,' Lt. Gen. Caine said of the pilots.
'The crews ranked from captain to colonel, and most were graduates of the Air Force weapons school headquartered at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. I will state for the record that there is no beach volleyball or football at the Air Force weapons school,' he added, making a Top Gun reference.
Lt. Gen. Caine had a video call with the crews recently and noted that there were both men and women involved in the daring attack.
'This felt like the Super Bowl, the thousands of scientists, airmen and maintainers all coming together,' he remarked.
'One last story about people. When the crews went to work on Friday, they kissed their loved ones goodbye, not knowing when or if they'd be home.
Pete Hegseth, left, with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Picture:/AFP
'Late on Saturday night, their families became aware of what was happening, and on Sunday, when those jets returned … their families were there, flags flying and tears flowing. I have chills, literally talking about this.'
The country's highest-ranking military officer underscored that 'our forces remain on a high state of readiness in the region, prepared to defend themselves'.
'Our adversaries around the world should know that there are other DTRA [Defense Threat Reduction Agency] team members out there studying targets for the same amount of time, and we'll continue to do so,' he said of the group that developed the MOPs to use against Fordow.
At one point during the briefing, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who raged at the press repeatedly, was pressed about why he congratulated the 'boys' for the successful mission.
'I'm very proud of that female pilot, just like I'm very proud of those male pilots — and I don't care if it's a male or female in that cockpit, and the American people don't care,' Mr Hegseth clapped back. 'We don't play your little games.'
This article originally appeared on NY Post and was reproduced with permission
Originally published as Pentagon releases jaw-dropping footage showing how 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs work
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