The mother of all bombs baby!

So yea, I'm sure this has been mentioned some where along the lines on this forum, but I just think it's so cool.

MOAB

I know I know, the article is 2 years old, but I just recently found out about its existence and did a quick search. Now, I just happen to think it kicks major arse.

Am I right?

Shattered OUT...

I suspect this is meant mainly as a propaganda weapon - and a very effective one too. The BLU-82s were quite handy in this role.

Yeah the Massive Ordnance Air Blast AKA Mother of all bombs or the the biggest non-nuclear bomb around. Its been around for awhile. They even had some over in Iraq but never found the need to use them.




Amazing power for a non-nuclear bomb more then sufficient to knock over tanks and kill any people within several hundred meters of the detonation

The blast radius on the history channel was said to be 1 mile, which I find hard to believe for a non-nuclear weapon. But this specific MOAB has been around since 2003. Hardly a while.

The original MOABs have in fact been around since Vietnam, actually, since ever. I believe all a MOAB is, is to be the largest above ground explosive. That's all there is to it. But it's still pretty big.

Shattered OUT...

Originally posted by ShatteredSkies
But this specific MOAB has been around since 2003. Hardly a while.

Just because it was publicly tested in 2003 does not mean it wasn't around before that. The concept to replace the daisy cutter goes back to the 90s.

I do consider years a while

Bigger non-nuclear bombs have been made by the US like the T-12 Cloudmaker it weighed in at about 44,000-pound bomb I think

I remember reading about the MOAB a while back, the power of the device is all down to it being a Fuel-Air explosion and that one side effect of the detonation would be to suck in massive amounts of air in the area which would be useful when bombing cave hide-outs.

Anyone who likes the MOAB must LOVE the video of the things!

check this site out on Globalsecurity.org!

MOAB

That's a BIG bomb

Yeah, this was all over the U.S media in the lead up to the Iraq war. Fox News aired the test like 20 times.

Originally posted by NWguy83
Yeah, this was all over the U.S media in the lead up to the Iraq war. Fox News aired the test like 20 times.

Sorry, I tend not to lend my attention to Fox News.

Shattered OUT...

I saw a special on the MOAB once.

They actually make these things by hand, almost like somebody would make a custom car or bike. Custom parts and such.

It was fascinating to watch.

We should drop the MOAB on ourselves, just to witness firsthand how amazing it truly is.

Seriously, we should be trying not to make these sorts of things. Doesn't help the already disasterous world situation.

Personally, I don't think we should be satisfied with our capability until we build a bomb that can actually shatter the planet earth into a trillion kazillion pieces to float forever around the sun in an awesome display of our strength.
Then some alien spaceship will happen by and the crew will think..."Wow, lets get out of here before they set off the next one!"

Originally posted by masqua
Personally, I don't think we should be satisfied with our capability until we build a bomb that can actually shatter the planet earth into a trillion kazillion pieces to float forever around the sun in an awesome display of our strength.
Then some alien spaceship will happen by and the crew will think..."Wow, lets get out of here before they set off the next one!"

Wouldn't that kill us in the process?

Shattered OUT...

Originally posted by ShatteredSkies

Originally posted by masqua
Personally, I don't think we should be satisfied with our capability until we build a bomb that can actually shatter the planet earth into a trillion kazillion pieces to float forever around the sun in an awesome display of our strength.
Then some alien spaceship will happen by and the crew will think..."Wow, lets get out of here before they set off the next one!"

Wouldn't that kill us in the process?

Shattered OUT...

I think that was the desired implication ... but seriously,

The present nature and limitations of Homo Sapiens lend credence to the world view axiom of " Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst " ... meaning -

Peace and reason are the ultimate goals, but in a hostile world, in order to protect such concepts, one must be able too defend from and discourage those not inclined to see merit in that perspective.

,,, at present, freedom and liberty comes at a very real cost.

"When you want peace, be prepared to go to war."

Shattered OUT...

Originally posted by ShatteredSkies
"When you want peace, be prepared to go to war."

Shattered OUT...

That is so close to George Orwells 1984, it's not even funny.

He wrote; 'war is peace'. G.W. Bush also said "We make war to make peace." In a way, you're all right. This world just seems to be adversarial throughout history and the only way to stop someone from taking what's yours is to threaten them with death.

So...I'm sorry I was so glib in the previous post...you didn't deserve that.

You see, shatteredSkies, I don't disagree with you...it's the truth...but I wish it wasn't. I wish things weren't this desperate, even though there's no way it's ever going to be any different. The thing is that I've lost the pleasure of blowing things up from 20 miles away. It used to thrill me to no end to hear that comment from the spotter...'target destroyed'. But now that we can destroy the world a hundred times over, its lost its appeal to me and I don't feel like gloating over bigger and bigger bombs.

I suppose reality is what it is, though...it seems like the human race has never been able to shake that killer instinct.

You will note, even with the capability which modern warfare is equiped with, that people and countries, without any hope of winning, will still try to fight, almost to their complete annihilation.

Perhaps that is our destiny after all...to finally meet the invincible alien enemy and watch humanity die trying to defeat it.

Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP).

A Boeing project that started in 2004.

Boeing Tapped To Develop Massive Penetrator Bomb

Per recent Aviation Week article (no current links available):
Funding for the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator (RNEP) was recently dropped. The U.S. Congress didn't want to fund it. Focus now shifts toward high-powered microwave (HPM) and conventional explosives in a ground penetrating role for ordnance.

The U.S. Air Force has been working on a large, roughly 30,000-lb. conventional bomb, the Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP), to take out deeply buried targets.
-Aviation Week & Space Technology-October 31, 2005

In case you're wondering, it says only a B-2 or B-52 could drop one of these (internal weapons bay). The MOAB could be dropped from a C-130. The C130J can lift 41,790 lbs, so it can lift a MOP, But the MOP requires a precision guidance type of drop.

Is the MOAB a bomb that splits an atom at explosion? I'm curiuos if anyone knows how it actually works.

Originally posted by SpilledBeans
Is the MOAB a bomb that splits an atom at explosion? I'm curiuos if anyone knows how it actually works.

It's conventional, so no, no nuclear detonation.

When we say Conventional, we mean nothing biological or atomic related. That leaves out standard explosives, it's just alot of TNT, that's all it is, 21,000 LBs of TNT.

Shattered OUT...

Originally posted by ShatteredSkies

Originally posted by SpilledBeans
Is the MOAB a bomb that splits an atom at explosion? I'm curiuos if anyone knows how it actually works.

It's conventional, so no, no nuclear detonation.

When we say Conventional, we mean nothing biological or atomic related. That leaves out standard explosives, it's just alot of TNT, that's all it is, 21,000 LBs of TNT.

Shattered OUT...

I read it was something like 9,000 pounds of something called Tritonal explosive. Whatever that means I don't know, but i saw the video, and that is one big bomb.