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What Is ‘The Mother Of All Bombs’ That Was Dropped On Nangarhar?

On Thursday night, U.S Forces dropped what is dubbed the Mother of All Bombs on a Daesh stronghold involving caves and tunnels in eastern Nangarhar province.
 
The bomb was a GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB), which is also commonly known as the Mother of All Bombs, as it is one of the most powerful conventional – or non-nuclear - weapons in existence.
 
MOAB is a concussive bomb, meaning it detonates above ground rather than penetrating hardened defenses, and was designed in 2002 for "psychological operations."
 
Anyone within 300 meters will be vaporized, experts say, while those in a 1km radius outside ground zero will be left deaf.
 
The aim at the time of its development was to create such a large blast it would scare then Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's troops into surrendering to U.S forces, and was touted as being the most powerful non-nuclear weapon ever developed.
 
However, it was never used – until Thursday – against Daesh in Achin district of Afghanistan.
 
The bomb was designed to be delivered by a C-130 Hercules.
 
The bomb itself rests in a cradle on a platform inside the aircraft. Due to its sheer size, the MOAB is extracted, on a platform, using a parachute. The parachute pulls the bomb, cradle and platform out and then it is quickly released to maintain maximum forward momentum.
 
The grid fins on the tail of the MOAB then open and begin guiding the weapon to its target using GPS.
 
The bomb weighs more than 10,000kgs and contains 8,164kgs of explosives and each bomb costs an estimated $16 million USD to build.
 
It’s explosion is equal to 11 tons of TNT and the blast radius is about 1.6kms.
 
The bomb measures nine meters long, detonates about 1.8 meters above ground and creates a 300-meter crater.
 
Bill Roggio, of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and editor of the Long War Journal, told Military Times Thursday night that the weapon is effective on softer targets such as caves and tunnels opposed to hard, infrastructure.  
 
“What it does is basically suck out all of the oxygen and lights the air on fire,” Roggio said.
 
“It’s a way to get into areas where conventional bombs can’t reach.”
 
Charles A. Horner, a retired 4-star Air Force general, also told the Military Times that such a bomb could destroy an underground infrastructure.
 
"They (U.S Forces) were wanting to collapse tunnels, and they don't know exactly where the tunnel is so they want to cause an earthquake to cave them in,” he said. 

What Is ‘The Mother Of All Bombs’ That Was Dropped On Nangarhar?

MOAB is a concussive bomb, meaning it detonates above ground rather than penetrating hardened defenses, and was designed in 2002 for "psychological operations."

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On Thursday night, U.S Forces dropped what is dubbed the Mother of All Bombs on a Daesh stronghold involving caves and tunnels in eastern Nangarhar province.
 
The bomb was a GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB), which is also commonly known as the Mother of All Bombs, as it is one of the most powerful conventional – or non-nuclear - weapons in existence.
 
MOAB is a concussive bomb, meaning it detonates above ground rather than penetrating hardened defenses, and was designed in 2002 for "psychological operations."
 
Anyone within 300 meters will be vaporized, experts say, while those in a 1km radius outside ground zero will be left deaf.
 
The aim at the time of its development was to create such a large blast it would scare then Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's troops into surrendering to U.S forces, and was touted as being the most powerful non-nuclear weapon ever developed.
 
However, it was never used – until Thursday – against Daesh in Achin district of Afghanistan.
 
The bomb was designed to be delivered by a C-130 Hercules.
 
The bomb itself rests in a cradle on a platform inside the aircraft. Due to its sheer size, the MOAB is extracted, on a platform, using a parachute. The parachute pulls the bomb, cradle and platform out and then it is quickly released to maintain maximum forward momentum.
 
The grid fins on the tail of the MOAB then open and begin guiding the weapon to its target using GPS.
 
The bomb weighs more than 10,000kgs and contains 8,164kgs of explosives and each bomb costs an estimated $16 million USD to build.
 
It’s explosion is equal to 11 tons of TNT and the blast radius is about 1.6kms.
 
The bomb measures nine meters long, detonates about 1.8 meters above ground and creates a 300-meter crater.
 
Bill Roggio, of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and editor of the Long War Journal, told Military Times Thursday night that the weapon is effective on softer targets such as caves and tunnels opposed to hard, infrastructure.  
 
“What it does is basically suck out all of the oxygen and lights the air on fire,” Roggio said.
 
“It’s a way to get into areas where conventional bombs can’t reach.”
 
Charles A. Horner, a retired 4-star Air Force general, also told the Military Times that such a bomb could destroy an underground infrastructure.
 
"They (U.S Forces) were wanting to collapse tunnels, and they don't know exactly where the tunnel is so they want to cause an earthquake to cave them in,” he said. 

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