Army in the 3rd millenium

The Mother Of All Bombs

Întocmit de
Stud. Cap. Virdol Florin
Introduction

The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb (MOAB)

(colloquially known as the The Mother Of All Bombs) is a large-yield
conventional bomb developed for the United States military by Albert L.
Weimorts Jr. At the time of development, it was touted as the most
powerful non-nuclear weapon ever designed. The bomb was designed to
be delivered by a C-130. Since then, Russia has tested their "Father of All
Bombs" and has claimed it to be four times more powerful than the MOAB,
although the legitimacy of the Russian weapon's size and power has been called
into question.

Description
MOAB’s length is 9.17 m, diameter is 102.9 cm, weight is 9.5 tonnes,
of which 8.4 tonnes are high explosives. It has a blast radous of 137.61m,
though the massive shockwave created by the air burst is said to be able
to destroy an area as large as nine city blocks. Due to its large size and
weight, it must be dropped out of the back of a cargo aircraft, usually a C-
130. It is guided by global positioning technology and uses a parachute to
pull it out of the cargo door, so it can be dropped from a higher altitude
and with higher accuracy than its predecessor. It is the first U.S. weapon to
use Russian-style lattice control surfaces like those used on the R-400 Oka
and Vympel R-77. It is larger than the Grand Slam bomb of World War II.

The MOAB uses 8.4 tonnes of H6 as its explosive filler. At 1.35 times
the power of TNT, H6 is one of the more powerful explosives used by the
U.S. military. H6 is an explosive combination of RDX (Cyclotrimethylene
trinitramine), TNT, and aluminum. H6 is typically employed by the military
for general purpose bombs, and is an explosive composition which is
produced in Australia. H6 is a widely used main blast charge filling for
underwater weapons such as mines, depth charges, torpedoes and mine
disposal charges. HBX compositions (HBX-1, HBX-3, and H6) are
aluminized (powdered aluminum) explosives mainly used as a
replacement for the now obsolete explosive, known as torpex. HBX-3 and
H6 have lower sensitivity to impact and much higher explosion test
temperatures than torpex.

Although its effect has often been compared to that of a nuclear

weapon, it is only about one thousandth the power of the atomic bomb
used against Hiroshima: it is equivalent to around 11 tons of TNT, whereas
the Hiroshima blast was equivalent to 13,000 tons of TNT and modern
nuclear missiles are far more powerful than the atomic bomb used against
Hiroshima. However, the MOAB bomb's yield is comparable to the smallest
of nuclear devices, such as the M-388 Davy Crockett.

It was first tested with the explosive tritonal on March 11, 2003, on Range
70 located at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. Aside from two test articles,
the only known production is of 15 units at the McAlester Army
Ammunition Plantin 2003 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Since
none of those are known to have been used as of early 2007, the U.S.
inventory of GBU-43/B presumably remains at approximately 15.

Evaluation of its utility

The basic design bears some similarity to the BLU-82 Daisy Cutter,
which was used in the Vietnam War and in Afghanistan — mostly for
clearing of heavily wooded areas in the former theater, and for attacking
hardened targets in the latter. Unlike the Daisy Cutter, the MOAB is
primarily intended for employment against deep and hardened targets.
Further, the Daisy Cutter is unguided, parachute stabilized and requires a
relatively low drop altitude, whereas the MOAB is a GPS guided free-fall
weapon with significantly greater stand-off capability.

Pentagon officials had suggested their intention to use MOAB as an

anti-personnel weapon, as part of the "shock and awe" strategy integral to
the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The U.S. Air Force conducted tests where
subjects were shown videos of the MOAB explosion. Except for the nuclear
scientists shown the video as a control group, all other test groups
identified the explosion (incorrectly) as a nuclear blast. This demonstrated
the MOAB's potential to inspire psychological fear.

While the MOAB is primarily intended for deep and hardened targets,
it can also be employed against soft to medium surface targets covering
extended areas. However, multiple strikes with lower yield ordnance may
be more effective and can be delivered by fighter/bombers such as the F-
16 with greater stand-off capability than the C-130 and C-17. High altitude
carpet-bombing with much smaller 2,000 or 1,000 pound bombs delivered
via B-52s is also highly effective at covering large areas.
The MOAB bomb