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April 13, 2017
U.S. drops 'mother of all bombs' on ISIS ~ Thank you Pres.Trump, Gen. Mattis and troops
U.S. dropped its largest non-nuclear weapon after targeting ISIS in Afghanistan
The GBU-43 bomb weighs 21,600 pounds, is 30 feet long, contains 11 tons of explosives and carries a mile-wide blast radius
It can create a blast crater more than 300 meters wide after being dropped from a Hercules MC-130 cargo plane
The United States has dropped its largest non-nuclear weapon after it targeted ISIS a network of caves and tunnels in eastern Afghanistan.
U.S. forces used a GPS-guided GBU-43 bomb, which is 30 feet long and weighs a staggering 21,600 pounds.
A crater left by the blast is believed to be more than 300 meters wide. It has been described as the 'Mother Of All Bombs' – a play on the 'MOAB' acronym, which actually stands for 'Massive Ordnance Air Burst.'
White House press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters that MOAB is 'a large, powerful and accurately delivered weapon' whose use was intended to collapse underground spaces used by ISIS terrorists to move freely and attack U.S. and allied troops.
'The United States takes the fight against ISIS seriously, and in order to defeat the group we must deny them operational space – which we did,' Spicer said.
He referred reporters' questions to the Pentagon.
A specialized MC-130 'Hercules' cargo aircraft released the weapon at 7:00 p.m. local time.
It was too big to drop from a traditional bomb-bay door or release from an aircraft wing, so 'we kicked it out the back door,' a U.S. official told Fox News.
The weapon's sheer power produces a blast that can be felt miles away., largely because of its construction.
Engineers used an unusually thin aluminum skin to encase MOAB's payload, in order to avoid a thicker steel frame interfering with the impact on a target.
The U.S. fast-tracked the MOAB in 2003 for use in Operation Iraqi Freedom, but the Defense Department later decided that the enemy provided too little resistance to justify its deployment.
Posted by Wild Thing at April 13, 2017 01:47 PM
Comments
That is one big boom.
I wonder what the after photos look like and did this bomb get the job done?
If it did go well will it go public or stay classified?
Posted by: Heltau at April 14, 2017 01:26 AM
