MOAB - Son of Daisy Cutter

StrategyPage.com ^ | 27 Feb 03 | StrategyPage.com

[11B3]

February 27, 2003: The U.S. Air Force is developing a new, 2nd generation, ten ton Fuel Air Explosive (FAS) bomb. It will replace the older "Daisy Cutter" FAS bomb developed during the 1960s. This was a 7.5 ton Fuel Air Explosive for clearing landing zones in the Vietnam jungle. Fuel Air Explosives work by dropping a bomb that is actually a large aerosol dispenser. When the FAS "explodes" it first dispenses a large cloud of flammable material (anything like gasoline or propane will work). The cloud is then ignited and huge explosion results. There's one drawback, the size and density of the aerosol cloud depends a lot on the wind, air temperature and humidity. So the power of the explosion will vary a lot.

The new FAS bomb, called MOAB (Massive Ordnance Air Burst) gets around some of these problems by borrowing (or licensing) from Russia research in this area. Russia has developed more effective aerosol materials and produced a wide range of FAS (or "termobaric", as they like to call them) weapons. In dry, dusty conditions, the Daisy Cutter produces a mushroom cloud similar to that created by a nuclear explosion (and for the same reason, the sheer size of the explosion creates an upward pull that sends up a "mushroom" of smoke and dust on a column of smoke).

In addition to a more reliable and powerful explosion, MOAB doesn’t need a parachute, like the Daisy Cutter, but uses a GPS (like JDAM) and an aerodynamic body to detonate the bomb at a precise area. Thus the MOAB can be dropped from a higher altitude (like outside the range of machine-guns and rifles). Like the Daisy Cutter, MOAB is shoved out the back of a cargo aircraft (usually a C-130, but since the MOAB uses GPS and higher altitude drops, the C-17 can probably be used as well.)

MOAB is a highly destructive and terrifying weapon. If used in Iraq, it would demoralize any Iraqi troops in the vicinity who survived the explosion. The force of a MOAB explosion is sufficient to knock over tanks and kill any people within several hundred meters of the detonation.

After the 1991 Gulf War, the United States started to get rid of it's various FAS weapons. But some were left in the inventory when the Afghanistan came along and the success of Daisy Cutters there, plus the new Russian research in FAS weapons, led to the new American research effort.

[Redleg Duke]

"I wish I could find some photos, but so far no luck."

Don't feel bad...the Air Force is probably still looking for the camera that took the photos, anyway!

[gulfcoast6]

Ummm, send one to 'SayDamn' and tell him it a rocket and he can shoot it off to hit Israel, that will do that bunch of SayDamns in orbit.

[John123]

MOAB doesn’t need a parachute, like the Daisy Cutter, but uses a GPS (like JDAM) and an aerodynamic body to detonate the bomb at a precise area. Thus the MOAB can be dropped from a higher altitude (like outside the range of machine-guns and rifles). Like the Daisy Cutter, MOAB is shoved out the back of a cargo aircraft (usually a C-130, but since the MOAB uses GPS and higher altitude drops, the C-17 can probably be used as well.)

How does GPS and aerodynamic body make this bomb more precise?

[Constitutional_Republican]

"How does GPS and aerodynamic body make this bomb more precise?"

Instead of just falling at he mercy of the wind variations and such, the GPS information is used to controls fins that guide the bomb to a more precise target point.