One has to be suspicious of the timing of the release of this video,—which came with no detailed description—as tensions are ratcheting up between the U.S. and both Iran and North Korea.

The MOP is precision guided primarily using GPS, similar to the Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM). Yet even the bunker buster variants in that series of weapons are incomparable to the mighty MOP. This precision guidance is thought to allow the MOP to not only hit deeply-buried installations at their weakest points, but it offers the potential to 'layer-in' multiple MOPs on a single pinpoint location—in effect 'digging' down to where the soil, rock, and concrete end and the vital infrastructure begins.

The Air Force is fully aware of how important this weapon is, even against a peer state like China that has gone as far as constructing a massive submarine base inside a mountain, and the service is ordering new and improved versions of the MOP that you can and should read all about in this past highly-detailed article of ours.

The crystal-clear video of not one, but two MOPs being employed against a ground target certainly sends the clear message to America's potential foes that it has the ability to reach out and touch even the most hardened, well defended, and far-flung of facilities without going nuclear. If the video got our attention, it surely got the adversary's as well.

Think of it as a friendly reminder of just what's at stake when it comes to going to war with the United States military. Above all else, it pretty much underlines the fact that a decapitation strike is possible even if the top regime members being targeted are hiding out in places meant to be immune from enemy bombardment.

It's a sobering reality, to say the least.

Contact the author: Tyler@thedrive.com