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U.S. Drops the "Mother of All Bombs" for the First Time in Combat

posted by takyon on Friday April 14 2017, @01:01PM   Printer-friendly
from the unconventional-conventional dept.

The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast, also known as the "Mother of All Bombs", has been dropped in Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan. It is the most powerful non-nuclear bomb in the U.S. arsenal.

julian and An Anonymous Coward write:

CNN reports:

The US military has dropped an enormous bomb in Afghanistan, according to four US military officials with direct knowledge of the mission. A GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb, nicknamed MOAB, was dropped at 7 p.m. local time Thursday, the sources said. [...] A MOAB is a 21,600-pound, GPS-guided munition that is America's most powerful non-nuclear bomb.

The bomb was dropped by an MC-130 aircraft, operated by Air Force Special Operations Command, according to the military sources. They said the target was an ISIS tunnel and cave complex as well as personnel in the Achin district of the Nangarhar province.

Gen. John Nicholson, Commander of U.S. Forces in Afghanistan, said in a statement. "This is the right munition to reduce these obstacles and maintain the momentum of our offensive against [ISIS]." The statement said U.S. forces took every precaution to avoid civilian casualties.

Also at Fox News. The bombing came days after the death of a Green Beret in the same province, but a defense official said the bombing was unrelated. Another official had this to say:

The MOAB had to be dropped out of the back of a U.S. Air Force C-130 cargo plane due to its massive size. "We kicked it out the back door," one U.S. official told Fox News.

Update: The Afghan defence ministry says that 36 ISIS fighters were killed by the strike.

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  • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday April 14 2017, @05:21PM (4 children)

    by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Friday April 14 2017, @05:21PM (#494082) Journal

    But if they were in a tunnel network, why didn't they use a "bunker buster"? Something is seriously wrong here, even if I don't know exactly what.

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  • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Friday April 14 2017, @05:38PM (1 child)

    by Gaaark (41) on Friday April 14 2017, @05:38PM (#494102) Journal

    Because: 'small dick, big truck'
    Because: 'small hands, big bomb'.

    Same idea.

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    • (Score: 5, Informative) by Thexalon on Friday April 14 2017, @05:48PM

      by Thexalon (636) on Friday April 14 2017, @05:48PM (#494108)

      I always thought George Carlin had it right a long time ago:

      I look at war a little bit differently. To me, war is a lot of prick-waving okay? Simple thing, that’s all it is, war is a whole lot of men standing out in a field waving their pricks at one another. Men are insecure about the size of their dicks and so they have to kill one another over the idea. That’s what all that asshole, jock bullshit is all about. That’s what all that adolescent, macho-male posturing, and strutting in bars and locker rooms is all about, it’s called “dick fear!” Men are terrified that their pricks are inadequate and so they have to compete with one another to feel better about themselves and since war is the ultimate competition, basically, men are killing each other in order to improve their self-esteem. You don’t have to be a historian or a political scientist to see the Bigger Dick foreign policy theory at work. It sounds like this: “What?! They have bigger dicks?! BOMB THEM!” And of course, the bombs and the rockets and the bullets are all shaped like dicks. It’s a subconscious need to project the penis into other people’s affairs.

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  • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday April 14 2017, @11:04PM

    by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Friday April 14 2017, @11:04PM (#494222) Homepage Journal

    Dunno. Likely because bunker busters didn't work for shit in Afghanistan.

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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by FatPhil on Saturday April 15 2017, @02:06PM

    by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Saturday April 15 2017, @02:06PM (#494407) Homepage
    I suspect their goal was to kill living things with the pressure wave (and anoxia) rather than to penetrate/collapse the tunnels themselves. Air-burst MOAB 100% supports that. Pressure waves are just as lethal in tunnels as above ground - the tunnels themselves ensure no energy is wasted moving anything that's not in your target area - it's basically a self-stearing hadouken.
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