Mother of all bombs

Times of Oman ^ | 11 March '03 | Reuters

[11th_VA]

Glad to see the Middle East is picking up this story...

[BushCountry]

Need explosive output. 1/2 kilotons? Want to compare to small nuclear device.

[Grut]

A C-131 “Samaritan” aircraft dropped the bomb...

Ah, the press, the press!

[Tennessee_Bob]

Well, they got some of it. Here's a C-131 Samaritan:

The plane that dropped the MOAB was a C-130 Hercules.

[keithtoo]

What surprises me is that there is a barren area in the FL panhandle that would be good for this demonstration. I would think this would be done out West somewhere.

[Kawolski]

Got any cool photos of the explosion? :D

[Diogenesis]

Test of a Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) bomb on March 11, 2003.

[calljack]

Why does this feel like we are saying "oooh, you guys better watch out!!"

[Semper911]

Freeper AmericanInTokyo has aptly called it a cauliflower cloud, rather than a mushroom cloud.

[11th_VA]

Why does this feel like we are saying "oooh, you guys better watch out!!"

Because we are !!!

[Varmint Al]

Remember that line in Crocodile Dundee... You call that a knife?

You call that a Knife? And Dundee pulls out his knife. THIS is a Knife! 

You call that a bomb? This is a bomb! The B83 is 1.14 million times more energetic!

B83 Characteristics

Available Yields	Low Kiloton Range/ 1200 Kilotons
Weight	2408 lb
Length	12 ft
Body Diameter	18 in
Number In Service	650

The B83 (Mk-83) Bomb

 Take note Iraq!

[Kosh5]

The bomb was tested at Eglin AFB - about an hour east of Pensacola. Eglin is the largest USAFB in terms of land area. Eglin is consistently used as a munitions test range. Eglin and Wright Patterson AFB (Dayton, OH) are common hops for AF personnel in the Logistics Command branch of the AF.

[Gamecock]

I knew an AF Senior Master SGT who had a video of a daisy cutter being pushed out the back of a C-130. I watched the bomb float to earth, saw the explosion, and a couple seconds later the whole plane was shaking. Very Cool.

[Cyber Liberty]

Your math is off.

21,000 lbs of TNT is 10.5 tons. That's 0.015 kilotons.

[Libloather]

The plane that dropped the MOAB was a C-130 Hercules.

A Navy plane? Doesn't the Air Force have some of these by now?

[Cyber Liberty]

You take your Germany, France and , roll them all together and it wouldn't give us room to park

I don't know what that means, but it cracks me up.

[rundy]

Here is a C-130 Hercules in Action.

Just imagine something that looks like one of these hanging on to the parachute.

That will give you some idea of what's going on.

[SuziQ]

I just saw a vide of this thing on the MSNBC web site. That is one big*ss bomb!!!

[conservativecorner]

Ain't she a beaut!!

[BushCountry]

Sorry, but I disagree (I pick 1/2 kiloton out of air, that is why the question mark). The bomb weighs 21,000 lbs, but doesn't use TNT to generate its explosive force. It disperses gases than ignites them. My question: Is the total explosive power greater than it's TNT weight? I would think so. But how much greater was the question.