MOAB suspected in Basra blasts

News.com ^ | March 21, 2003 | Unknown

[conservativecorner]

A SERIES of big explosions have been reported near the southern Iraqi city of Basra.

"We can see huge explosions and fireballs on the horizon towards Basra," Reuters correspondent David Fox said from a vantage point overlooking the frontier about 50km south of Basra.

The scale of the explosion suggests a Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) bomb may have been deployed.

The 9450kg MOAB has supplanted the Daisy Cutter in the US arsenal as the world's largest conventional bomb.

Explosions were also heard in or around the main northern Iraqi city of Mosul early Friday, Al-Jazeera television reported from the scene.

The blasts occurred around half an hour after raid sirens sounded over the the city for the fourth time since the US-led war on Iraq began early Thursday.

[afraid]

boom

[doug from upland]

In today's vernacular, MOAB is da bomb.

[MJY1288]

Yikes

[wallcrawlr]

Boom-dili-icious

[Pearls Before Swine]

I thought MOAB stood for "Mother of All Bombs." It would be appropriate.

[jlogajan]

Possible, but also likely an ammo dump blowing up.

[Jeremy_Reaban]

??? I was under the impression that the MOAB was delivered by a cargo plane. Surely we won't be using that until we take out their air defenses and such....

[Bubba_Leroy]

Yo Sadam, catch this!

[Urbane_Guerilla]

I picture MOAB as a large file which takes long to download.

[Ford Fairlane]

I'm just thinking here, but I bet you could use MOAB to put out multiple oil well fires, it would deplete all of the oxygen for a large area

[sonofatpatcher2]

Here's an update of your post, Bubba:

Yo Sadam,
catch this!

[Tennessee_Bob]

MOAB is da bomb

Well, it is a bomb - the largest currently in the inventory, but not the largest. The largest ever in the inventory was the T-12 Cloudmaker, weighing in at 43,600 pounds. They built it for the B-36.

Here's a link to a picture of it:  T-12 Cloudmaker

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

OFFICIAL BUMP(TOPIC)LIST

[conservativecorner]

Unbelievable picture. BUMP!!

[Paradox]

I'm just thinking here, but I bet you could use MOAB to put out multiple oil well fires, it would deplete all of the oxygen for a large area

I had a similar idea in a post a few weeks ago. Although I was thinking that Fuel/Air bombs would be more useful in that case. The MOAB is just a "regular" bomb, just one with a big wallop.

[airedale]

Some reporter heard a big boom and glomed on to the latest buzz word. Hitting a ammo dump with a 1,000 pound or greater bomb or warhead makes a big boom. The reporter probably doesn't have the ability to tell the difference.

[GeorgeBerryman]

The largest ever in the inventory was the T-12 Cloudmaker, weighing in at 43,600 pounds.





I used to bullseye womp rats with my T-12 back home.

[Ford Fairlane]

I though MOAB was fuel - air ??