Fearsome firepower ... the US hopes the
massive superbomb will terrify Iraqi troops
Posted on 03/11/2003 6:10:25 PM PST by Pokey78
THIS is the fearsome superbomb that will help destroy Iraqi tyrant Saddam Hussein’s evil regime.
It is the world’s most powerful non-nuclear weapon and the blast from its 9½ TONS of high explosive will be heard 40 MILES away.
The 30ft-long bomb zaps everything within a mile and is so devastating that video of its first test — carried out last night — will be beamed to Iraqi troops to terrify them into surrender.
Detonation unleashes a 10,000ft mushroom cloud, like an atomic bomb.
The device is called MOAB, meaning Massive Ordnance Air Blast. But US forces have dubbed it the Mother Of All Bombs.
It is so huge — 3ft longer than a London bus — it cannot be dropped from a convential bomber.
Instead, it is shoved out of a C-130 Hercules transport plane on a pallet attached to a parachute.
Once it stabilises in the air, the chute falls away, motors kick in and the MOAB is guided towards its target by satellite.
It is designed to blow up above the ground and seal off command bunkers and tunnels.
Military chiefs could also use it to blast tanks or clear areas booby-trapped with landmines.
But officials claimed its biggest effect would be psychological.
A Pentagon source said: “It sends up a mushroom cloud so vast that enemy soldiers who see it from many miles away will think America has done the unthinkable.
“It will be used for shock value alone and dropped well away from cities where it could inflict huge civilian casualties.
“A primary reason to utilise this kind of weapon is psychological. The intent is to paralyse and terrorise Iraqi troops, to stop them in their tracks and end the war more quickly.”
US Defence Department official Jake Swinson said: “It destroys everything in about a mile.
“Within a wider radius it will burst eardrums and wreck buildings.”
And battlefield tactics expert Harlan Ullman, of the US Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said: “We want to create a feeling of hopelessness in the Iraqi military.”
Last night’s test, at Eglin air base, near Pensacola, Florida, was the third conducted by the US Air Force — but the first involving an explosion.
Randy Wood, who lives 45 miles away at Fort Walton Beach, said: “It was like a sonic boom.”
US chiefs are convinced footage of the blast will make Saddam’s generals realise they cannot win.
The MOAB dwarfs the six-ton “Daisycutters” which were used to flush out Taliban and al-Qa’ida fighters from cave hideouts in Afghanistan.
And those could not be guided to their targets.
If morale among Saddam's troops is as poor as it appears, these may achieve some pretty major victories with minimal collateral damage. Drop one of these ten miles outside a town. The next day nine miles. The next day eight miles. I think a lot of people would suddenly work very hard to surrender.
Don't laugh, this device could suck the Oxygen out of an oilfield fire.
It seems to me that since it is detonated above ground that it would not send quite as big shock waves as it would if on or in the ground, of course I don't really know.
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