DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Palus Politicus US drops a GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb today.

Also known as the “Mother of all Bombs”. It’s the largest non-nuclear bomb ever used in combat.

Weighs 21,000 pounds.



The huge bomb, delivered via an MC-130 transport plane, has a blast yield equivalent to 11 tons of TNT.

It hit an ISIS tunnel complex.

US President Donald Trump called the mission "very, very successful."

White House spokesman Sean Spicer said: "We must deny them operational space, which we did."

Looks like more space to me.

The United States just dropped a MOAB on Afghanistan! Largest non nuclear bomb known to man!
First time it has been used in combat. They said the target was ISIS tunnels and personnel in the Achin district of the Nangarhar province.

MOAB = Mother of All Bombs or Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb
MOAB is a 21,600-pound, GPS-guided munition

http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/13/politics/afghanistan-isis-moab-bomb/

Official ISIS Command comment from the scene- .........dzzt......dzzt.....................dzzt.........

Blast radius = 1 mile.

Let me think back.

Radius, that's half a circle. Two radii make a diameter.

Diameter of blast at ground zero = 2 miles.

Personnel were targeted.

I hope Allah doesn't run out of virgins.

That's nuts. It's also interesting to me that they had developed this (sounds like) relatively recently in an era where weapons are becoming more and more precise and targeted.

Just kind of curious what something like that costs

The Washinton Examiner said around 16 mil.

On further review:


The DoD Has No Idea How Much The Mother Of All Bombs Costs

Thomas Phippen
Author

04/13/2017




The giant bomb U.S. forces dropped Thursday on an ISIS training camp in Afghanistan did not cost $314 million to develop, or $16 million per unit as reported by multiple news outlets.

Every news report about cost of the “Mother of All Bombs” relied on a misreading of a 2011 article or a dubious internet website that InfoWars once linked to with a “healthy bit of skepticism.”

The actual cost of the bomb is unknown. The actual cost of the program isn’t publicly available because the Mother of All Bombs, officially known as GBU-43 or the Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB), is manufactured by the military and not a private defense company. (RELATED: US Drops ‘Mother Of All Bombs’ On ISIS In Afghanistan)

In fact, the Air Force doesn’t even keep track of the per unit cost, nor the cost of the program as a whole, because it is not manufactured privately.


http://dailycaller.com/2017/04/13/the-st...m_medium=Social

Yes this was a strike on Isis ..... but it was also a message to Syria, Russia, Iran, etc. This thing made a massive crater, destroying everything in its blast radius.

I think that some of these people, like Assad, (and maybe even Putin) have to take a step back and reevaluate how they want to approach things.

Obviously that's our hope. Send a message and hope it keeps things quelled ... the alternative reaction would not be good though too

The bomb is real interesting. Had to be dropped from a cargo platform because it's too big for any of our bombers.

I remember hearing about this bad boy during the first Gulf War. IIRC, it's a Vietnam era weapon that was designed to flatten whole swathes of jungle to speed up the process of building airfields. British Commandos conducting operations in Kuwait saw the bomb go off in the distance thought we had dropped a nuke, the blast was so massive.

I like that it it's in Cleveland Browns orange

wasn't produced until 2003, and while this is great, don't forget, Russia has a Thermobaric bomb that makes this look like a bottle rocket

Ah, thanks for the correction which caused me to look it up... This was the bomb I was thinking of... only 15,000lbs though.
from Wikipedia...

The BLU-82B/C-130 weapon system, known under program "Commando Vault" and nicknamed "Daisy Cutter" in Vietnam and in Afghanistan for its ability to flatten a section of forest into a helicopter landing zone, is a 15,000-pound (6,800 kg) conventional bomb, delivered from either a C-130 or an MC-130 transport aircraft. Two hundred and twenty-five were constructed.[2] The BLU-82 was retired in 2008 and replaced with the more powerful MOAB.

Call me crazy, but I don't think strikes like the 59 Tomahawks and this crazy son of a gun are purely meant for the benefit of others to see. I'm wondering if Trump is trying to build up a surge of excitement on the part of the American People to gain support for his intent to increase military spending.

How many of you Dawgs remember the the excitement of the First Gulf War? Every night CNN was talking about a brand new weapon system... the B2 and F-117 Stealth aircraft went public, the Patriot Missile Defense System was talked about... they even had statistical graphics for our tanks and aircraft akin to the stuff FOX NFL Sunday puts out on players. And watching Wolfe Blitzer on the hotel balcony with all that anti-aircraft flak in the background, wondering if we were going to see his face before he got blown up by one of our missiles with the TV camera in the nose... it carried all the excitement of Monday Night Football every night!

I think we even had trading cards.

I think he's trying to get us excited about our military again.

Want me to get excited about the military again? Relax those age restrictions a little for me, and maybe make one little blemish on my DD-214 go away so I can re-enlist, lol!

I don't think you're crazy... I think we are- if we allow ourselves to be manipulated in such a ham-fisted way.

We should be a taste more sophisticated than this by now... and yet, we seem to still fall for the same stupid tricks every time they're trotted out.

WTF is wrong with us, as a public?

Do we have to lurch ourselves all the way into 2117, before we stop falling for the the 'snake-oil salesman's' pitch?

Yes Clem it was much more sophisticated when we just sat back with our highbrow attitudes and watched Russia take Crimea.

So wise and aloof were we as China, Mexico and Iran were given such good positions when it comes to trade deals and power.

How sophisticated and above it all as North Korea built its Nuclear arsenal to someday even threaten American soil.

How smart we all look now that time and again Assad has gassed his people while our leadership lied to us saying they had worked a deal and every chemical weapon at his disposal had been removed from Syria and destroyed.

The snake oil has already been purchased and the stockpile is vast.

The problem is we dinked around for 8 years to where we need to punch the punk in the mouth in a hurry.

The punk has one chance, to hit first. I say don't give him that chance.

I assume we have been trying to deal with him in a diplomatic way for a few years now. That hasn't worked, so it is time to kick his bad haircut out of the picture.

Time to end his run.

quote above by mac:

"It is likely that the GBU-43 has unknown relatives"

This is a virtual certainty.

I think the Rooskies claim a non nuke bomb 4 times stronger than the GBU-43.

And you know what, I believe them.

The top part of what you said illustrated a huge problem. For the past 8 years in certain situations it almost seemed to me that Obama was scared to act. I get that you don't have to use military for everything and can use diplomacy but sometimes that is a futile effort. I was getting tired waiting for him to act, so far I like our military efforts under this president. I think it is a notice to say, "Hey, we're not going to put up with your shannigans anymore." "We have new leadership and a different administration than last time, you can't just behave anyway you want and expect us to do nothing again."

Possibly, but it's not like we just found out about MOAB or that it was ever really a secret. It's been public knowledge nearly since its inception. The only surprising thing about this strike was that it finally got used.