The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB, aka Mother of All Bombs) is the most powerful non-nuclear bomb made so far.
MOAB is developed for the United States military by Albert L. Weimorts, Jr. of the Air Force Research Laboratory.
The bomb was designed to be carried by a MC-130E Combat Talon I or MC-130H Combat Talon II transport airplanes.
MOAB was first tested with the tritonal explosive on 11 March 2003, on Range 70 located at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. The second test was made on 21 November 2003.
The first combat use of the MOAB was on 13 April 2017. A MOAB was dropped on an ISIS cave complex in Nangarhar Province in Afghanistan.
This massive bomb creates a blast radius stretching a mile in each direction. The MOAB is made out of a very thin aluminum skin.
The reason for that design was in order to maximize the blast without interfering the bomb structure with the development of the blast wave.
Specification:
Weight 10,300 kg (22,600 lb)
Length 9.1885 m (30 ft 1.75 in)
Diameter 103 cm (40.5 in)
Filling H-6
Filling weight 8,500 kg (18,700 lb)
Blast yield 11 tons TNT
