The Pentagon is looking to replace the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator bombs that were used in the U.S. military’s operation targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities last year.
The Boeing contract, which became public on Thursday in a partially redacted Air Force document, is valued at more than $100 million, but the specific value was redacted.
The “procurement and sustainment activity is critically needed to replenish the inventory of GBU-57’s expended During Operation Midnight Hammer,” according to the document. “This action is essential to restore operational readiness.”
Boeing won the initial contract “to complete MOP/Aircraft integration” in 2009.
The United States had B-2 bombers drop 14 MOPs, the largest non-nuclear bomb in the military’s arsenal, targeting the Fordow and Natanz nuclear facilities in what the department named Operation Midnight Hammer. It was the first time the military used the 30,000-pound bomb in a real-world operation.
This bomb is specifically designed to hit underground and hardened facilities that other bombs are not able to reach.
An officer in the Defense Threat Reduction Agency was brought in to study the Iranians’ construction of the Fordow facility in 2009 and was later joined by another individual, whose name has not been released publicly. They worked directly with the defense industry and other military tacticians to design a weapon that would be able to destroy the facility.
The Air Force will eventually transition from the MOP to the Next Generation Penetrator.
Applied Research Associates announced in September 2025 that it had won the contract for the Next Generation Penetrator.
“Under this contract, ARA has established an exclusive partnership with The Boeing Company, which will serve as a key contributor,” the company said at the time. “Leveraging decades of experience in guided and penetrating munitions, ARA will lead design maturation, while Boeing will drive tail kit development and support all-up-round integration.”
President Donald Trump is in the midst of a standoff with the Iranian regime, with the American leader willing to give negotiations a chance before approving military operations again.
“I insisted that negotiations with Iran continue to see whether or not a deal can be consummated,” the president said Wednesday after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “If it can, I let the prime minister know that will be a preference. If it cannot, we will just have to see what the outcome will be.”
Iranian and American representatives met in Oman last week to restart negotiations, but it is unclear if the two sides will have the breakthrough that eluded the talks they had last year, prior to Operation Midnight Hammer.
American officials have said they want the deal to pertain not only to their nuclear program but also include limits on their ballistic missile arsenal and their support for proxy forces in the region, while Iranian officials have said they are only open to discussing their nuclear program.
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At the same time, the U.S. is also bolstering its military presence in the region with the deployment of the Gerald Ford Carrier Strike Group from the Caribbean Sea to the Middle East, where it will join the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group.
“While force posture evolves, our operational capability does not,” Col. Emanuel L. Ortiz, a spokesman for U.S. Southern Command, told the Washington Examiner. “SOUTHCOM forces remain fully ready to project power, defend themselves, and protect U.S. interests in the region. At the direction of the president and the secretary of war, we continue mission-focused operations to counter illicit activities and malign actors in the Western Hemisphere.”
