It's
a weapon that justifies the use of the word 'terrifying' to describe its power
and marks a deadly ramping up of America's military initiative abroad.
The
GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb, nicknamed MOAB, or 'Mother of All
Bombs', is a 21,600 pound, GPS-guided munition that is America's most powerful
non-nuclear bomb.
Almost
20 feet long, it truly is the queen of the so-called 'bunker busters'.
Deployed
from as high as 20,000 feet, the MOAB races to the ground at supersonic speed
before slamming its way toward a hardened target through layered subterranean
defenses such as native rock, reinforced concrete, and steel plates.
The
11-tonnes of TNT warhead then bursts about 6 feet (1.8 meters) above the
ground.
The
idea behind an 'air burst' weapon, as opposed to a weapon that explodes on
impact with the ground, is to increase its destructive range.
A
bomb that penetrates the ground and then bursts tends to send all of its energy
either down into the ground or straight up into the air.
An
air burst weapon sends a great deal of its energy out to the side.
As
a precision-guided 'smart bomb' the MOAB is designed to cause maximum damage to
bunkers, tunnels and other areas that can typically withstand even large
standard bombs or artillery strikes.
It
can kill people within several hundred metres of the point of detonation, and
cause lung damage and other injuries over an even wider area.
“The
most amazing thing about MOAB is it’s the most powerful bomb ever built and has
done its job—deterring the enemy—simply because they know about it,” Robert
Hammack, a team chief for the bomb’s development, was quoted as saying in an
Air Force article in 2008.
The
bomb, dropped at 7pm local time (4pm UK time) today in Afghanistan, was
operated by an Air Force Special Operations Command.
It
was deployed by an MC-130 aircraft to target ISIS and extremists.
The
bomb had to be "kicked" out the back of the cargo plane due to its
colossal size, according to military sources.
The
US Air Force targeted a cave complex in the Achin district of Nangarhar
province after a US special forces 'Green Beret' was killed fighting the terror
group in the country, according to Fox News .
In
terms of destructive capability, it can be said to be the most fearsome
explosive weapon among a range of massive-blast ordnance developed by the
Pentagon over the past decade.
It
replaces the Vietnam-era "Daisy Cutter," a 15,000-pound bomb with
12,600 pounds of the less-powerful GSX explosives.
Gen.
John Nicholson, commander of US forces in Afghanistan, signed off on the use of
the bomb, according to U.S. sources.
As
[ISIS'] losses have mounted, they are using IEDs, bunkers and tunnels to
thicken their defense," General Nicholson said in a statement.
"This
is the right munition to reduce these obstacles and maintain the momentum of
our offensive against [ISIS]."
This
is the first time a MOAB is believed to have been used in battlefield after
first being developed during the Iraq War.
Military
officials told CNN in 2003 that the MOAB was mainly conceived as a weapon
employed for "psychological operations."
They
said they hoped the MOAB would create such a huge blast that it would rattle
Iraq troops and pressure them into surrendering or not even fighting.
Officials
suggested that perhaps the Iraqis might have even mistaken a MOAB blast for a
nuclear detonation.
Source: http://www.mirror.co.uk
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