It’ll weigh 15 tons, contain 5300 pounds of explosives, and be able to penetrate up to 200 feet into a bunker before exploding. The Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) will take the title for largest non-nuclear bomb away from the GBU-43/b MOAB and it’ll do it by a whole lot. MOAB weighs in at 10.5 tons and it definitely not a penetrator. Of course, MOAB is designed for a completely different mission than MOP is so differences are to be expected.
Note, too, that MOP’s weight comes from the penetrator part of its system. The explosives MOP carries are significantly less in quantity than MOAB’s 18,000+ pounds. MOP’s effectiveness will come from getting that ordnance down into the bunker and blasting it apart from the inside.
August 9th, 2009
Posted by
ricjames |
Aviation, GWOT, Military, Technology |
no comments
When I read this morning’s paper and saw the report on Creigh Deeds, Democrat candidate for VA Governor, saying that he’s about to launch an attack campaign against Bob McDonnell over McDonnell’s abortion stance I had to stop and re-read the lede. After all of the critically important agenda items Bob has put forward, after all of the thoroughly-explained plans he’s got and the leadership he’s shown, Deeds’ idea of engaging is to try to paint McDonnell as out of the mainstream on abortion?
Lunacy.
I had planned on writing on the matter this afternoon but I see that VA Blogger over at Too Conservative has beaten me to it:
Bob McDonnell announced his transportation plan 20 days ago. In those 20 days, Creigh Deeds has refused to issue his own plan, refused to commit to a funding source (while all but explicitly saying he supports a tax increase), and still doesn’t have a transportation issues page on his website. Alright, maybe there’s more important issues to discuss: the economy, growing unemploymnent, a $1.5 billion budget shortfall, education, or even energy and protecting our natural resources. So after a listless two months since winning the primary, which of those crucial issues does Creigh Deeds plan to spend his campaign talking about?
Abortion, of course.
The abortion issue is important, absolutely. But what does it say that on all of these other matters – transportation, education, energy, and (oh, yeah) jobs – that Deeds’ best response is, “Oh, yeah, I’ll do something about that, too”? Meanwhile his commentary now and his voting pattern in the past are indicating that his answer to just damned near anything it to confiscate more of your money.
This appears to be his only real shot at highlighting a difference but even that begs the question of 1) whether that difference is important enough to Virginia’s voters that they’ll ignore the thunderous silence that is all Deeds’ plans consist of at the moment and 2) whether McDonnell’s stance and actions on the issue of abortion – when what he’s done is submit legislation and propose regulation that had wide bipartisan support – falls “outside the mainstream.”
Personally, I think the answers are “no” and “no.” Bob McDonnell has answers for our pressing problems, realistic action plans that stand a real chance of making a whole lot of things better, and the leadership to get them done. Bob McDonnell is the serious choice for Governor of Virginia.
August 9th, 2009
Posted by
ricjames |
Politics, Virginia Politics |
no comments
From a tweet by Patrick Ruffini I got a link to this Craig’s List entry talking about wanting to hire activists to push for Health Care Reform. So, Obamacare supporters are trying to hire people for $10-$15 per hour to… well, to do exactly what they’re accusing – incorrectly – conservatives of doing. That is, send paid activists in to Congressional town hall meetings.
Remember that when they start sputtering again about “bussed-in mobs.” They’re the ones sending in the paid support.
August 9th, 2009
Posted by
ricjames |
Medicine, Politics |
no comments
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