[Semper911]

Florida Freepers! Go out and check it out. Give us a full report.

[finnman69]

Back ground info

http://www.strategypage.com/gallery/default.asp?target=moab.htm

February 27, 2003: The U.S. Air Force is developing a new, 2nd generation, ten ton large, low air burst bomb. It will replace the older "Daisy Cutter" 7.5 ton bomb developed during the 1960s. This was a 7.5 ton bomb using a semi-liquid explosive for clearing landing zones in the Vietnam jungle. The terms "Daisy Cutter" actually comes from the four foot probe at the bottom of the bomb which triggered the explosion without creating a crater (helicopters don't like to land in craters.) The probe was later replaced with a radar altimeter fuze, but the nickname "Daisy Cutter" stuck. The official designation was BLU-82 (or "Big Blue"). Until the BLU-82 came along, the biggest non-nuclear explosion obtainable was with a FAE (Fuel Air Explosives). FAE works by dropping a bomb that is actually a large aerosol dispenser. When the FAE "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. But it's difficult to get a FAE to work in a bomb larger than 2000 pounds. So the replacement for the BLU-82 bomb, called MOAB (Massive Ordnance Air Burst) simply uses more of the slurry of ammonium nitrate and powdered aluminum. 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 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 FAE 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 FAE weapons, led to the new American research effort. There may be larger, or simply more powerful, FAE weapons in the works. But for the moment, MOAB, using pretty old fashioned technology, is the biggest non-nuclear bomb around.

[finnman69]

Mapquest map of area

[2Jedismom]

What time, I wonder?

[finnman69]

WABC radio just announced that this test WILL BE FILMED AND BROADCAST OVER IRAQ!

Sounds like what we were considering in 1945. We considered showing the Japanese Ambassador a live A-bomb test and telling him, we have a dozen more bombs for your cities like this.

[ladtx]

Just heard CBS radio news refer to the MOAB. The newsreader said the acronym stood for "Mother Of All Bombs". Sounds like a newsroom typist was having some fun at his expense. LOL!! Anyone else hear it? Almost had coffee all over my keyboard.

[aruanan]

I should have posted a separate thread. I mentioned this about 9AM CST on two related threads.

[AF_Blue]

BOOM!!!

It just went off! My windows and walls (steel frame building) rattled.

[yarddog]

I was in DeFuniak Springs when it went off and did not hear or feel a thing. This is about 30 miles from the blast and the winds might have been away from us.

[Sparky760]

Drop a few of those in the Iraqi desert and that should cause 10,000 Iraqi troops to come running with white flags waving.

[shadowman99]

.

[Pagey]

I'm really wondering why they wouldn't do this in the Nevada Desert.

[Pablo64]

BIG ba-da-boom!!!!

Wheeeee-haaaaaah!!

[sit-rep]

I would like to be close enough to feel it... hearing it would be cool, but if you could feel it. Not to the point of pain, but almost. That would be the real sense of what this thing can do...

[theDentist]

Reminds me of the Buffett song:

Waiting For The Next Explosion

Missing link crouched upon a promontory rock
Tryin' to figure out his biological clock.
No one around to announce his arrival
So he's got to get to work on his sense of survival
Oh Oh, it's a dangerous world.

Over in China they got smart real fast
That's where they invented the man made blast.
They lost a few fingers and some bamboo shacks,
But they gave birth to a tribe of pyromaniacs.

(Chorus)
Oh oh, it's a dangerous world.
Fire in the sky, lava in the ocean,
Sittin' round waitin' for the next explosion

Back in the fifties they thought it made good sense
To teach all the school children about civil defense.
Don't be scared, do not cry,
Just dive under your desk and kiss your ass goodbye.

(Chorus)
Oh oh, such a dangerous world.
It was a hell of a hustle, paranoia promotion
Waiting at ground zero, for the next explosion.

Where you gonna be
When it hits the fan?
Got a plan?
What you gonna do
If it lands on you?
Where's your point of view?

Down at the beach club there's a sales convention
Night sky is the focus of that crowd's attention.
It's no cosmic collision just a fireworks show,
But they feel it in their hearts when those
Concussion bombs blow.

Oh oh, such a dangerous world
Gunpowder's louder than Newton's laws of motion.
Everybody's waitin' for the next explosion.

Fires in the sky, fallin' on the ocean
Sittin' round waitin' for the next explosion.