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© GRAPHIC NEWS

© GRAPHIC NEWS

Graphic shows the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb (MOAB).
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MILITARY

Mother of all bombs

By Duncan Mil

April 14, 2017 - The U.S. military has dropped America's most powerful non-nuclear bomb on so-called Islamic State targets in Afghanistan. It is the first time this type of weapoen has been used in battle.

A GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb (MOAB), nicknamed the “mother of all bombs,” was dropped at 19:32 local time (15:32GMT) Thursday, according to U.S. military officials with direct knowledge of the mission.

President Donald Trump called it “another successful job” later Thursday.

The 9,800kg (21,000lb) Massive Ordnance Air Blast combines a KMU-593/B guidance section and BLU-120/B warhead with an 8,425kg (18,633lb) Tritonal explosive fill, according to IHS Jane’s 360.

The MOAB has a blast yield of 11 tonnes (TNT) and, at 9.45m long, is too large to be dropped from a conventional bomber so is deployed from Lockheed Martin MC-130H special mission aircraft.

Link to IHS Jane’s 360

The bomb detonated above a 300m-long network of caves in the Achin district of Nangarhar province, a remote area in the country’s east which borders Pakistan.

On Saturday, Nangarhar provincial spokesman Attaullah Khogiani reported that 94 IS fighters, including four commanders, were killed in the attack.

Sources
PUBLISHED: 15/04/2017; STORY: Graphic News
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