Whiteman Air Force Base 509th Bomb Wing (509 BW) B-2 Pump Up Video shows B-2 Northrop Grumman Spirit stealth bomber dropping two GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators. The B-2 Spirit stealth bomber is the only aircraft in the U.S. Air Force inventory currently capable to operationally drop the massive 30,000-lb (14,000 kg) GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (even though the testing of the MOP involved a B-52 back in 2009, the weapon’s intended platform is only the B-2). Whilst there are just a few images showing the GBU-57 carried by or next to a B-2 but hardly find any video of the B-2 dropping one of the two MOPs the stealth bomber can carry in its internal bomb bay.
Whiteman Air Force Base (AFB) is a United States Air Force base located approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) south of Knob Noster, MO; 10 miles (16 km) east of Warrensburg, MO, and 70 miles (110 km) east-southeast of Kansas City. The host unit at Whiteman AFB is the 509th Bomb Wing (509 BW), assigned to the Eighth Air Force of the Air Force Global Strike Command. The 509 BW operates the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, designed to be employed to strike high-value targets that are either out of range of conventional aircraft or considered to be too heavily defended for conventional aircraft to strike without a high risk of loss.
The GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) is a precision-guided, 30,000-pound (14,000 kg) “bunker buster” bomb used by the United States Air Force. The GPS-guided bomb said to be able to penetrate 200 feet of concrete before exploding: for this reason it is considered the weapon of choice in case of attack on buried targets (such as the North Korean bunkers). This is substantially larger than the deepest penetrating bunker busters previously available, the 5,000-pound (2,300 kg) GBU-28 and GBU-37. The MOP is sometimes mistaken with the 11-ton, parachute deployed, GBU-43B MOAB (Massive Ordnance Air Blast) also known as “Mother Of All Bombs”. The MOAB is the largest conventional air dropped weapon ever employed by the U.S. military: a U.S. Air Force Special Operations MC-130 Combat Talon II dropped the GBU-43B on an ISIS cave complex target in Afghanistan, for the very first time on Apr. 13, 2017.
B-2 stealth bomber dropping GBU-57 MOP
