US drops largest non-nuclear bomb in Afghanistan

[Puupi]

Oh and by the way, the President would have no role in choosing what to bomb and how to bomb it. Just approval for the strike, but that is usually delegated the Combatant Commander.

Are you sure he wasn't choosing the bombs?

I mean, what if he was presented with a couple different phallic devices to choose from.

And his choice was the biggest one which was orange......

To me that screams like Trump had his little fingers in this.

[Gib Lover]

That's kind of what I was wondering too. Why didn't they just drop 10 tons of boxes of TNT instead? I mean, if it were a rocket...I'd consider 1:1 ratio to be fair...the rocket part of the bomb weighs a lot.

But for a bomb? Sounds oddly inefficient.

And it also produced a 2km blast.... which is ridiculously big.

I might be repeating myself but these numbers don't just add up to me.

The MOAB and it's predecessor the Daisy Cutter are used for either clearing a swath of land or for killing people in a canyon/cave system. The way the air blast interacts with the oxygen in a cave system makes it an extremely effective weapon

[MasterOfNone]

Using excessively large blasts just for the hell of it does nothing to win wars, but it does make war more expensive, which makes it easier for the US to "lose" them.

because they made that bomb for that specific purpose? get real....

[alexkeren]

Doesnt larger bimb mean more civ casualties?

Really hard to have civilian casualties when you're bombing remote area to take out cave system.

It's not like it was dropped on a city.

[Skroe]

That's kind of what I was wondering too. Why didn't they just drop 10 tons of boxes of TNT instead? I mean, if it were a rocket...I'd consider 1:1 ratio to be fair...the rocket part of the bomb weighs a lot.

But for a bomb? Sounds oddly inefficient.

And it also produced a 2km blast.... which is ridiculously big.

I might be repeating myself but these numbers don't just add up to me.

Hahaha very funny, but I don't think the operational one is orange.

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The MOAB and it's predecessor the Daisy Cutter are used for either clearing a swath of land or for killing people in a canyon/cave system. The way the air blast interacts with the oxygen in a cave system makes it an extremely effective weapon

It's worth stating that the US used the Daisy Cutter early in the Afghan War. But that stockpile was left over from the late Vietnam era, and was largely aged out / exhausted. Without it being manufactured, a replacement was needed. Hence MOAB and MOP.

[Auxora]

Even then Japan nukes are small in comparison to modern nukes, modern nukes are many more times destructive.

Also good to point out that the largest nuke North Korea has tested was only 10kt, and the Hiroshima bomb was 15kt. So while dangerous, it's good to keep in mind with this graphic on the perspective of North Korea's (tiny) nukes.

A side note too, Russia actually built but never tested a bomb double the size of the Tzar Bomba (so it would have been 100 Mt, Tzar Bomba was 50 Mt). Supposedly they were concerned of the large area affected by a test that large, even in the Soviet Union in the Cold War.

China's nukes are quite large city killers, whereas the US has actually shrunk the payload size of ours and focused more on extreme accuracy. While you'd think why bother with accuracy for nukes, it actually is fairly important when targeting fortified sites like bunkers and silos.

As far as the MOAB drop today, I'm guessing while extremely useful for taking out tunnel complexes in this case, the timing probably was very intentional. It sends another message to Syria/North Korea and others that the US is now more willing than in the past and capable militarily. I haven't heard anything about the bomb being dropped anywhere near civilians or a town. From what I've read it was a remote tunnel complex near the mountains. And if civilians are living on top of an ISIS tunnel complex that's probably not a wise thing on their part. I always find the suggestion that the US is intentionally bombing civilians to be boggling. 2 or 3 B52s would turn Damascus to rubble if the US really wanted to and didn't care about civilians. Thousands of US troop lives could have been saved if the US didn't care about civilian lives and took the Syrian/Russian Aleppo approach, but the US military doesn't do that. In fact we spend a small fortune on accurate weapons to avoid collateral damage as much as possible. There are times mistakes have been made, and it's tough to avoid when ISIS tricks the US into attacking a building they are sniping from with civilians inside.

Regardless, from an anti-terror standpoint the US and Russia are on the same side. It would be nice to see the leaders and diplomats work their egos out and realize that so they could put their differences aside and work together (our US leaders being incredibly inept at diplomacy doesn't help for sure).

[Kellhound]

Wait... check my math. The bomb weighs 21,000lbs, but produces and explosion the equivalent of ~10 tons of TnT... so it's almost a 1 to 1 ratio? That seems... not gud.

Because the explosive filler does not make up the entire weight of the bomb, the H-6 it is filled with is ~1/3 TNT any way and is only 35% more powerful than pure TNT. It is, however, castable and stable.

[Gib Lover]

It's worth stating that the US used the Daisy Cutter early in the Afghan War. But that stockpile was left over from the late Vietnam era, and was largely aged out / exhausted. Without it being manufactured, a replacement was needed. Hence MOAB and MOP.

Yeah the Daisy is completely dead now. We blew our last one in 2008, bought a handful of MOABs in 2011 and never got to use them.

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A side note too, Russia actually built but never tested a bomb double the size of the Tzar Bomba (so it would have been 100 Mt, Tzar Bomba was 50 Mt). Supposedly they were concerned of the large area affected by a test that large, even in the Soviet Union in the Cold War.

IIRC the 50MT Tzar Bomba that detonated was actually supposed to be smaller, I think 25MT and it ended up being 50, so we can only imagine what would happen if they detonated the 100MT.
Adding to that, they didn't detonate it because they couldn't calculate the fallout that would happen because of it, and no plane they had would be able to escape the blast radius in time. Only now with modern bombers would the 100MT even be remotely possible, or with an ICBM

[Occam-OC]

Using excessively large blasts just for the hell of it does nothing to win wars, but it does make war more expensive, which makes it easier for the US to "lose" them.

No part of the statement you referenced said anything about "just for the hell of it". They chose that bomb from what I read because of it's high destructive capability against an entrenched opponent.

[Paranoid Android]

About time we stopped fighting these "wars" with both hands tied behind our backs. Maybe we'll actually be able to "win" now (or is that still not allowed?)

Yeah bomb that ideology right out of them.

Fucking jeezus christ. So as soon as Trump is informed he has a new toy, this fucking moron is going to use it. I'm more amazed at what a stupid fucking ass-hat he is everyday.

[Gib Lover]

Yeah bomb that ideology right out of them.

Fucking jeezus christ. So as soon as Trump is informed he has a new toy, this fucking moron is going to use it. I'm more amazed at what a stupid fucking ass-hat he is everyday.

We've had this bomb since 2011. We've known about it since 2003 while we were testing it. This isn't new. Trump is terrible, but this is a really dumb thing to accuse him of.

[sheggaro]

Awesome, keep em comin

[Paranoid Android]

We've had this bomb since 2011. We've known about it since 2003 while we were testing it. This isn't new. Trump is terrible, but this is a really dumb thing to accuse him of.

United States drops its largest non-nuclear bomb for the first time ever, on Afghanistan compound

[Skroe]

Yeah bomb that ideology right out of them.

Fucking jeezus christ. So as soon as Trump is informed he has a new toy, this fucking moron is going to use it. I'm more amazed at what a stupid fucking ass-hat he is everyday.

It wouldn't be within the President's pervue to order something like this.

It IS a fact however that the US Military has been unable to make statements of conventional deterence, which are an essential part of our defensive posture for many years. They have wanted to. On the record, they have said they wanted to. But Obama's staffed stopped them.

Don't be surprised if you hear something like "The Pentagon is dispatching six B-2s to Guam" and "8 F-22s sent to Germany" in the next few weeks. That will again, not be done on Trump's orders. With his consent as CiC for sure, but the what, when, how and why will be a Pentagon planner's idea. .

[Mayhem]

If you want to see how powerful these bombs are, go to google maps and look at the West end of Eglin air force bases largest test range. They dropped the first moab they developed there. The crater is about 1200 ft across. I live in mobile about 80ish miles away and we heard it go off.

Eglin Air Force Base in Florida? You sure? ^^

[Skroe]

United States drops its largest non-nuclear bomb for the first time ever, on Afghanistan compound

But let's put this in context. It's only larger than the Daisy Cutter because it was designed to replace the Vietnam-era Daisy Cutter.... and the Daisy Cutter was dropped a number of times in the early War on Terror.

[Gib Lover]

United States drops its largest non-nuclear bomb for the first time ever, on Afghanistan compound

You can bold and quote all you want it doesn't make you right. This was the first time it was dropped in a live fire scenario, it is a thoroughly tested weapon that has been in our arsenal ready to drop since 2011.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GBU-43...ance_Air_Blast

Wait did you really think this was literally the first time one was EVER dropped?

[Paranoid Android]

You can bold and quote all you want it doesn't make you right. This was the first time it was dropped in a live fire scenario, it is a thoroughly tested weapon that has been in our arsenal ready to drop since 2011.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GBU-43...ance_Air_Blast

Wait did you really think this was literally the first time one was EVER dropped?

Wow you are stuck on .....

[Jayburner]

oh! I only know moabs from bloons tower defense game. I now know what moab stands for...thats pretty neat.

[Paranoid Android]

But let's put this in context. It's only larger than the Daisy Cutter because it was designed to replace the Vietnam-era Daisy Cutter.... and the Daisy Cutter was dropped a number of times in the early War on Terror.

You want to argue that Trump did not approve this. Trump? I mean Trump.