MOAB

[Dawood Ibrahim]

The Mother of All Bombs pictured on Wikipedia.



The most powerful non-nuclear bomb in the U.S. Military’s arsenal has been dropped in Afghanistan. It’s known as the Mother of All Bombs or MOAB. The official name of the weapon is the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb. CNN reports that it was dropped in the Achin district of Nangarhar, close to the Pakistan boarder at around 7 p.m. local time on April 13. It’s the first time the weapon has been used in the battlefield. CNN, quoting Afghan officials, says that 36 ISIS fighters have been killed. The network added that intelligence officials estimated that there could have been as many as 800 ISIS fighters in the area.


WATCH: Mother of All Bombs Landing on ISIS
Watch the moment the most devastating non-nuclear weapon in the U.S. Military's arsenal exploded on an ISIS tunnel complex.

Click here to read more
The Air Force Times reports that the specific target was an ISIS tunnel complex in the region. The top U.S. commander in the region, Gen. John W. Nicholson, said in a statement, “As ISIS-K’s losses have mounted, they are using IEDs, bunkers and tunnels to thicken their defense. This is the right munition to reduce these obstacles and maintain the momentum of our offensive against ISIS-K.” While “every precaution” was taken to avoid civilian casualties.

When asked about the bombing, Trump said, “Everybody knows exactly what happened so, and what I do is I authorize my military.”

Here’s what you need to know:

1. It Was Built at the Beginning of the Iraq War in 2003

The Mother of All Bombs pictured on Wikipedia.

The bomb was first tested by the U.S. Military in March 2003, just before the start of the Iraq war. The Department of Defense said it was dropped from a C130 Hercules aircraft at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. It weighed 21,500 pounds. The statement concludes with the line, “It is the largest non-nuclear weapon in existence.”

CNN reported in April 2003 that one bomb, of the 15 that were created, was moved into the Persian Gulf area.

2. Russia Claims it Has Detonated the ‘Father of All Bombs’ – 4 Times the Strength of MOAB

The Guardian reported in September 2007 that the Russian military had detonated the “Father of All Bombs.” The Kremlin described the bomb as being “four times” more powerful than the MOAB. The Guardian quoted an army official in Russia, Alexander Rukshin, as saying, “You will now see it in action – the bomb which has no match in the world is being tested at a military site.” The Russian bomb was dropped by a Tupolev 160.



3. USAF Lieutenant General Herbert Carlisle Described the Bomb as a ‘Great Weapon to Use on Iran’

Global Research Canada quoted U.S. Air Force Lieutenant General Herbert Carlisle as calling the MOAB “great” for a possible strike on Iran.

Jonathan Karl of ABC News wrote in October 2009 that MOAB is “ideally suited to hit deeply buried nuclear facilities such as Natanz or Qom in Iran.” Just prior to Karl writing that article, he noted that “McDonnell Douglas was awarded a $51.9 million contract to provide ‘Massive Penetrator Ordnance Integration’ on B-2 aircraft.” Karl also describes the bomb as “not the kind of weapon that would be particularly useful in Iraq or Afghanistan.”

4. Each Bomb Costs $16 Million to Build

According to military information website Deagel, MOAB costs around $16 million per unit. So far the U.S. military has spent $314 million on the production of the explosive. The bomb weighs 20,000 pounds and is equipped with GPS tracking systems.

5. The Strike Comes Days After Staff Sgt. Mark De Alencar Was Killed in the Region

On April 10, the Defense Department announced that Special Forces Staff Sgt. Mark De Alencar had been killed in the Achin district. He was 37 years old. Staff Sgt. De Alencar was based out of Eglin Air Force Base, where MOAB was first tested.

The Achin district is 100 percent Pashtun tribal. During the Soviet/Afghan war of the 1980s, it was a stronghold of the U.S. backed Mujaheddin. There is a population of around 95,000. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said in 2000 that the area was the greatest opium growing district in eastern Afghanistan. Other crops grown in the area include wheat and tobacco.

http://heavy.com/news/2017/04/mother-of-all-bombs-moab-gbu43/

 

[Oldman1]

 

[Penguin]

GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB), colloquial known as the 'Mother of All Bombs'

Length : 9.1885 m (30 ft 1.75 in)
Diameter: 103 cm (40.5 in)
Weight: 9,800 kg (21,600 lb)
Filling: Composition H-6
Filling weight: 8,500 kg (18,700 lb)
Blast yield : 11 tons TNT (46 GJ) equivalent
Blast Radius (epicenter): 100-150 meters (492 ft)
Guidance: INS/GPS
Unit price: $170,000 (mid-2000 estimate)

Composition H6 is a castable military [predominantly naval] explosive mixture composed of the following percentages by weight:

• 44.0% RDX
• 29.5% TNT
• 21.0% powdered aluminium
• 5.0% paraffin wax as a phlegmatizing agent.
• 0.5% calcium chloride

The MOAB is the most powerful conventional bomb ever used in combat as measured by the weight of its explosive material. The explosive yield is comparable to that of the smallest tactical nuclear weapons.
The MOAB is not a penetrator weapon. It is primarily an air burst ordnance intended for soft to medium surface targets, covering extended areas and targets in a contained environment such as a deep canyon or within a cave system.
High altitude carpet-bombing with much smaller 230-to-910-kilogram (500 to 2,000 lb) bombs delivered via heavy bombers (B-52, B-2, or B-1) is also highly effective at covering large areas. The MOAB, however, is designed to be used against a specific target, and cannot by itself replicate the effects of a typical heavy bomber mission.

Aviation Thermobaric Bomb of Increased Power (ATBIP), nicknamed "Father of All Bombs" (FOAB)

Length :
Diameter:
Weight: 7,100 kilogram (15,653 pound)
Filling: High explosive and fine aluminium powder and ethylene oxide mix .
Filling weight: about 7 tons (15,00 lb)
Blast yield : 44 tons (80,000 Ibs) TNT equivalent
Blast Radius (epicenter): 200-300 meters (984 ft) (blast effects are felt at a range of up to 2.5 kilometers)
Guidance: none
Unit price:

The FOAB is a Russian-designed, bomber-delivered (Tu-160 rather than C-130 transport) thermobaric weapon. A thermobaric weapon is a type of explosive that utilizes oxygen from the surrounding air to generate an intense, high-temperature explosion, and in practice the blast wave typically produced by such a weapon is of a significantly longer duration than that produced by a conventional condensed explosive. The fuel-air bomb is one of the best-known types of thermobaric weapons.
Most conventional explosives consist of a fuel-oxidizer premix (gunpowder, for example, contains 25% fuel and 75% oxidizer), whereas thermobaric weapons are almost 100% fuel, so thermobaric weapons are significantly more energetic than conventional condensed explosives of equal weight. Thermobaric weapons differ from conventional explosive weapons in that they generate a longer, more sustained blast wave with greater temperatures (the temperature at the centre of the blast is twice as high as with the MOAB). In doing so, they produce more damage over a larger area than a conventional weapon of similar mass
Thermobaric weapons have the longest sustained blast wave and most destructive force of any known non-nuclear explosive. Their reliance on atmospheric oxygen makes them unsuitable for use underwater, at high altitude, and in adverse weather. They are however, considerably more destructive when used against field fortifications such as foxholes, tunnels, bunkers, and caves—partly due to the sustained blast wave, and partly by consuming the available oxygen inside.

GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP), the U.S. Air Force's heaviest, precision-guided "bunker buster" bomb.

Length 6.2 m (20.5 feet)
Diameter 0.80 m (31.5 inches)
Weight: 14,000 kg (30,000 pounds)
Filling: Conventional high explosive
Filling weight: 2,404.0 kilograms (5,300 pounds)
Penetration: 61m (200 ft) of 5,000 psi (34 MPa) reinforced concrete, 6.4m (26 ft) of 10,000 psi (69 MPa) reinforced concrete, or 40m (130 ft) of moderately hard rock.
Guidance: INS/GPS
Unit price:

Earth-penetrating weapon, deployed on the B-2 bomber (2 per aircraft) and B-52, and is guided using GPS. The bomb is intended for only one purpose - to destroy the type of hardened concrete bunkers which house central command facilities and weapons of mass destruction. It will penetrate 200 ft of hardened concrete before it goes off. The MOP is deployed from high altitude and allows gravity to add momentum to its 30,000 pound weight so that it hits with enormous kinetic energy.

The follow-on Next-Generation Penetrator (NGP) munition should be about one-third the size of the Massive Ordnance Penetrator so it can be carried by smaller aircraft. This would either be with the same or a smaller weapon that uses rocket power to reach sufficient speed to match the penetrating power of the larger weapon. May include a void-sensing fuze.

 

[Morpheus]

Are those the ruins of some houses? If so, there must have been some civilian causalities, or did US & Afghanistan just declare everyone killed a terrorist.

 

[Oldman1]

Are those the ruins of some houses? If so, there must have been some civilian causalities, or did US & Afghanistan just declare everyone killed a terrorist.

So the ruins of a house is automatically considered civilians dead? Never seen enemy fighters ever used the house? Cause nobody mentioned any civilians dead in the MOAB bomb attack.

 

[Incog_nito]

Now US have started testing Minetman III missiles - I don't know whether they will use it against anyone in the world or not.... Trumps 100 Days are quite blasting for the world.