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 Air Force and Boeing agreed to a nearly $2.4 billion contract for a new lot of KC-46 aerial tankers on Nov. 21. The deal, announced by the Pentagon, is for 15 new aircraft in Lot 11 at a cost of $2.389 billion—some $159 million per tail.