The U.S. Air Force has announced plans to modernize its Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) bombs, officially known as GBU-57, following their recent use in strikes on Iranian targets, The War Zone reports.
The upgrade involves improvements to the BLU-127 fuse system, which controls detonation at specific depths using a "floor-counting" mechanism designed to determine how many layers of bunker the bomb has penetrated. The Air Force is also seeking additional suppliers for critical components in order to boost production capacity.
Furthermore, officials plan to update the software governing the KMU-612 tail section, which guides the bomb using a combination of inertial and satellite navigation systems.
The War Zone notes that the use of GBU-57s in Iran allowed adversaries of the U.S. to gather valuable data on one of America’s most secretive and potent non-nuclear weapons.
In June, The National Interest warned that the U.S. may have only six GBU-57 bombs left in its arsenal following the Iran operation—far too few to support possible future campaigns against heavily fortified targets in countries like China or Russia.
