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Russia tests the world's largest ever non-nuclear bomb
The Daily Mail (U.K.) ^ | September 12, 2007

Posted on 09/11/2007 5:59:17 PM PDT by Stoat

Russia tests the world's largest ever non-nuclear bomb

Last updated at 00:56am on 12th September 2007

 Russia has exploded the world's biggest non-nuclear bomb in a dramatic escalation of the new Cold War.

Nicknamed 'the father of all bombs', it was filmed being dropped from a strategic bomber and exploding in a massive fireball.

The film then showed the debris of apartment buildings and armoured vehicles at a testing range, as well as ground burned by a massive explosion.

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Bomb

DESTRUCTION: The world's largest non-nuclear bomb tested by Russians

 

It didn't give the bomb's military name or say when it was tested.

Yuri Balyko, head of the Russian defence ministry's institute in charge of weapons design, said yesterday: "We have got a relatively cheap ordnance with a high strike power."

The test comes as Russia spends massively increased oil revenue on rebuilding its military might.

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bomb

It has been nicknamed the "dad of all bombs" and is four times more powerful than the U.S. "mother of all bombs."

 

The device is said to be four times more powerful than America's Massive Ordnance Air Blast, nicknamed the Mother Of All Bombs.

It would target more specific areas than nuclear bombs, and is an immediate threat to problem areas such as Chechnya.

Last night a source close to the US National Security Council said it was a "matter of concern" that Moscow would develop such a huge weapon at a time when there was no obvious need.

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bomb

A computer image of a new ordnance from Russian tv which is claimed by the Russian military the world's most powerful non-nuclear bomb

 

He added that the US would ask for an explanation. He said there was "no chance" that America would become involved in a new arms race with the Russians and that the US had no use for bombs larger than the ones already in its arsenal.

While US intelligence was aware that Moscow was working on a new thermobaric device, it did not know that a test was imminent.

The latest raising of tension by Russia comes after president Vladimir Putin revived the Cold War era practice of flying bombers on long-range patrols.

Last week Royal Air Force fighter jets were scrambled to intercept eight Russian military planes flying in airspace patrolled by Nato.

The incident was the latest this summer in which British fighters have been used to warn off long-range Russian reconnaissance aircraft.

The so-called Mother of all Bombs is the biggest weapon in America's arsenal, capable of detonating 21,000lb of explosives above the ground.

The huge bomb, dropped from a slowmoving C130 Hercules aircraft and guided to its target by the satellite-linked global positioning system, can create temperatures of up to 1,000f (538c).

It is designed to obliterate chemical or biological agents concealed in bunkers.

The US is believed to have 15 in its arsenal but none is believed to have been used against an enemy.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; News/Current Events; Russia; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: bomb; coldwar2; escalation; fatherofallbombs; foab; russia; russianmilitary; waronterror
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To: burzum
Yes exactly, they’re very proud of their Tzar cannon at the Kremlin, that was oversized and never fired. However it was a blast seeing the Kremlin and Moscow.
121 posted on 09/11/2007 10:35:43 PM PDT by zencat (The universe is not what it appears, nor is it something else.)
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To: burzum
What is Putin going to do with it next, parade it in the streets?

Well, I guess the women and perhaps some of his Generals like parades, so there's that, but when you look at this quote from the related Reuters article:

"It (the bomb) will allow us to safeguard our state's security and fight international terrorism in any circumstances and in any part of the world," Rukshin said.

it says "Chechnya" to me, at least.  From Putin's perspective, this sort of thing would be perfect to swat down any insurrection in that arena.... a massive, impressive fireball of a "secret explosive" over a wide area that would tend to have a 'deterrent effect' on future uprisings, no radioactive fallout, quick deployment and minimal international diplomatic problems, compared, at least, with using a nuke..

122 posted on 09/11/2007 10:42:04 PM PDT by Stoat (Rice / Coulter 2008: Smart Ladies for a Strong America)
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To: Stoat

“Although it has never been used, the US military says the MOAB is capable of destroying nine city blocks in one strike.”

“According to Gen Alexander Rushkin, the Russian deputy chief of staff, the new bomb is smaller than the MOAB but much deadlier because, due to nanotechnology, the temperature at the epicentre of the blast is twice as high.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=X4JYWILORQYGNQFIQMGCFFWAVCBQUIV0?xml=/news/2007/09/12/wbomb112.xml


123 posted on 09/12/2007 3:59:38 AM PDT by chessplayer
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To: zencat

Your physics is rusty. During those 39 ns, the average power output of the tsar bomba was 5.4 * 10^24 watts (50 megatons / 39 ns). At any particular moment, the sun is outputting energy at a rate of 3.85 * 10^26 watts.

Dividing through, the bomb was about 1.4% of the sun, for those brief 39ns. It sounds amazing, because it is. Should conditions make the need for such a device practical, it is technologically feasible to have the brightest object in the solar system right here on Earth.


124 posted on 09/12/2007 3:59:48 AM PDT by monkey attack
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To: Stoat

Steak and drinks!!! Wow I should of gone to prison earlier!


125 posted on 09/12/2007 5:21:46 AM PDT by mad_as_he$$ (Remember Mustang 22 and her heroes.)
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To: piytar
“BTW, anyone hear the urban legend that some of the scientists who set off the first nuke thought it would start a chain reaction in the O2 “

Not an urban legend. Manhattan Project actually calculated reaction temperatures and area/volume to see if Trinity would set off a N2-O2 burn that would sustain. It’s in Richard Rhode’s book The Making of the Atom Bomb as well as other related books.

The calculation said “no”.

Likewise the RHIC at Brookhaven and PBFA I and PBFA II (now Saturn and Z Machine) were checked to see if they’d make micro black holes that would break containment and settle into Earth and collapse it to the size of a walnut. Calculation said “no” so they turned them on.

126 posted on 09/12/2007 6:11:55 AM PDT by DBrow
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To: Stoat
"Quizzical expression on face" bbbbut....both the Daily Mail and Reuters report the aircraft to be the Tupolev Tu-160:

Don't I feel stupid. I saw Hercules C130 mentioned in the article and, while it seemed mighty strange that the Russians could get one and use it, I went with that. The C130 mention was for the MOAB, not the Russian bomb. Duh...

But, my point remains. The Tupolev Tu-160 can handle over 40 tons of payload.

127 posted on 09/12/2007 6:19:49 AM PDT by Spiff
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To: zencat

“Sun is 3.8 x 10^23 kiloWatts/sec.”

Here’s a problem. A Watt is a Joule/sec so it’s already “per time”.

Compare Joules released in the bomb total vs joules released by the Sun in 40 ns.

A kiloton TNT is 4.18E+12 Joules.


128 posted on 09/12/2007 6:28:04 AM PDT by DBrow
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To: muawiyah
Amazingly, this morning I was listening to FOX NEWS and lo and behold one of their military experts comes on to warn everyone that the US has penetration devices that can get to everything Iran thinks it can hide, so the Russian FOAB really isn't needed.

It was just like the guy had been reading this particular thread.

No doubt he'll be back today ~ so, just in case, here's the answer ~ the qanat system can be quite diffuse, and although a large part of it consists of small, shallow tunnels barely covered by flat rocks, there are thousands of miles of far larger tunnels that are deep in the Earth.

Takes a lot of penetrators to destroy such a system. A FOAB deals with the atmosphere in the vicinity of the qanat system and can make the area unlivable while at the same time sanitizing it of any defensive anti-personnel equipment or chemicals.

Then you send in the troops to clear out the nukes!

Leastwise, that's the way I see the Russian approach to the problem. Penetrators would simply release radioactive waste and possibly create some fallout that'd come down in the Caspian ~ much to the distress of the Russians living there!

129 posted on 09/12/2007 6:45:07 AM PDT by muawiyah
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To: burzum

If Tsar Bomba had detonated at its maximum 100 MT yield, it could have resulted in a fireball almost 6 miles across. Lethal effects would be felt in an area the size of Maryland. Still, such destructive power would be dwarfed by a relatively small asteroid impacting the surface of the Earth.


130 posted on 09/12/2007 9:10:30 AM PDT by dolphin558
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To: SoldierDad

So the Russians did not invent communism. That’s all.


131 posted on 09/12/2007 10:14:27 AM PDT by TKDietz
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To: Junior_G

“Is there a video of this somewhere?”


in Sandy Berger’s pants.


132 posted on 09/12/2007 10:25:01 AM PDT by UCANSEE2 (((Wi arr mi kidz faling skool ?)))
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To: Spiff
Don't I feel stupid.

Ummm... I wasn't feeling stupid, merely confused by your post.  Thank you for your clarification  :-)

So then if it's true that both aircraft could easily carry 8 or eleven tons of payload, I suppose the question remains as to why they bothered themselves to engineer a "secret explosive" that produces such a great yield when they could have gotten that yield with a bomb that they could also have carried in existing aircraft..  There's obviously a whole lot missing from the currently available 'news' reports that would help a lot toward answering such questions.

133 posted on 09/12/2007 4:23:44 PM PDT by Stoat (Rice / Coulter 2008: Smart Ladies for a Strong America)
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To: mad_as_he$$
Steak and drinks!!! Wow I should of gone to prison earlier!

Let that be a lesson to all!  You will all be assimilated!

"evil, echoing laugh"

134 posted on 09/12/2007 4:42:26 PM PDT by Stoat (Rice / Coulter 2008: Smart Ladies for a Strong America)
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To: finnman69

MOAB is not a penetrator bomb. Massive Ordinance Air Blast. The MOP, or Massive Ordinance Penetrator, is a penetrator bomb.


135 posted on 09/13/2007 9:49:31 AM PDT by David1
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To: LibWhacker
Have they EVER invented anything? I mean, other than the oxcart?

Sputnik ring any bells?

The periodic table (chemistry)
The helicopter (Sikorsky?)

136 posted on 09/13/2007 4:22:01 PM PDT by Centurion2000 (“Jesus Saves. Moses Delivers. Cthulu Reposesses...”)
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To: Centurion2000
Sputnik ring any bells?

Well, thank God for that! I don't know what we'd do if we didn't have a Sputnik in every garage nowadays. Hey, come over some time and we can shoot some hoops with mine.

The periodic table (chemistry) Not an invention

The helicopter (Sikorsky?) Nope, the first helicopter had been built and flown years before Sikorsky ever began working on his.

137 posted on 09/13/2007 7:09:25 PM PDT by LibWhacker
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